LUSH LIFE A BIOGRAPHY OF BILLY STRAYHORN PDF

Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn jazz article by Joel Roberts, published on March 8, at All About Jazz. Find more Book Reviews. Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn. Billy Strayhorn () was one of the greatest composers in the history of American music, the creator of a body of . Billy Strayhorn Strayhorn was a teenager when he wrote most of the song, which was to become his signature Nat King Cole performed “Lush Life” in , while trumpeter Harry James recorded it four times.

His wide-ranging research and interviewing set a high standard. If you’re familiar with All About Jazzyou know that we’ve dedicated over biograpby decades to supporting jazz as an art form, and more importantly, the creative musicians who make it.

As well, answers may be filled in. The amazing sto What a beautiful read!

LUSH LIFE: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn by David Hajdu | Kirkus Reviews

It’s amazing how much is still not widely known about Strayhorn that was written in this book. If you shop at any of the stores below, please initiate your purchase from All About Jazz.

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But there was a Billy Strayhorn. Book Reviews Dexter Gordon: Someday I’ll write the two-man play where Strayhorn and Ellington are holed up in a hotel to finish a piece.

Preview — Lush Life by David Hajdu. Links Jazz Albums Jazz Discographies. Membership has its privileges!

Biobraphy 23, Don rated it it was amazing. Lush Life is about as lyrical as biography can get and still stay on track. Strayhorn had had the freedom to pursue all avenues of musical expression and continue to make a living doing sowe as a nation might have had another important modern American “art music” which I use for lack of a better term, because what he did write was clearly high art composer in addition to one of the great big-band and small ensemble composer-arrangers in history.

Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. She did a session with Duke Ellington in Paris. He could see what was strayhornn and worthy in almost any individual he came upon.

To ask other readers questions about Lush Lifeplease sign up. This moving and sensitive biography draws on hundreds of frank interviews with his friends, family, lovers and fellow musicians – a fitting tribute to a gifted man.

Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn

Cue For Saxophone Victor buy. I read this one over the course of maybe two or three days. As Aaron Bridgers recalled, “It was his constant message of encouragement and good cheer. Never in their long association were Strayhorn’s precise duties within the Ellington organization clearly defined. It gives thorough billly on this genius who provided incredible enrichment to the ‘Ellington sound’. Dec 15, Iain rated it it was amazing. The Music, Musicians And Now there might not be a Billy Strayhorn Orchestra.

Because there was no in-depth interview with Duke Ellington on how he worked with Strayhorn, much of their relationship – the strayuorn consequential one of Strayhorn’s life – feels underexplored. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i. It makes you wonder: This is a song about the deepest set pain known to anyone: Light wear to wrappers, else a very neat, tight copy.

There are at least three big selling points to this book. This book is scholarly where it needs to be—as when Hajdu teases out the writing credits for Ellington’s song catalogue—but also energetic, passionate and readable.

Questions?

The burning cigarette between his fingers. First, the relationship between Strayhorn and Ellington is fascinating and somewhat reminiscent of that between Lennon and McCartney—Ian MacDonald’s excellent Beatles biography Revolution in the Head makes a great companion piece to Lush Life. Interviews with friends and associates show a man dear to everyone who knew him.

Hajdu has uncoverred, particularly concerning the early Pittsburgh years and including stayhorn copious testimonry of nearly of Strayhorn’s and Ellington’s push, is staggering, especially in light of how little has been previously published on Staryhorn.

Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn by David Hajdu

I want to delve deeper into the mind and soul of the subject- I can always consult an encyclopedia if I want the when and the where.

Equally as important, Duke was the personification of Strayhorn’s youthful daydreams of urban sophistication and elegance, a milieu Strayhorn was only able to imagine in songs like “Lush Life,” the ultimate paean to cafe society, penned, amazingly, when he was biograpjy twenty-one. You come to interact in a certain way with the man as an adult: