Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780865475120)

A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

Billy Strayhorn (1915-67) was one of the greatest composers in the history of American music, the creator of a body of work that includes such standards as "Take the 'A' Train." Yet all his life Strayhorn was overshadowed by his friend and collaborator Duke Ellington, with whom he worked for three decades as the Ellington Orchestra's ace songwriter and arranger. A "definitive" corrective (USA Today) to decades of patchwork scholarship and journalism about this giant of jazz, David Hajdu's Lush Life is a vibrant and absorbing account of the "lush life" that Strayhorn and other jazz musicians led in Harlem and Paris. While composing some of the most gorgeous American music of the twentieth century, Strayhorn labored under a complex agreement whereby Ellington took the bows for his work. Until his life was tragically cut short by cancer and alcohol abuse, the small, shy composer carried himself with singular style and grace as one of the few jazzmen to be openly homosexual. Lush Life has sparked an enthusiastic revival of interest in Strayhorn's work and is already acknowledged as a jazz classic.

Author: David Hajdu
ISBN-10: 0865475121
ISBN-13: 9780865475120
Publisher: North Point Press
Language: English
Published: 06/26/1997
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 06/29/1997 pg. 32
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 01/01/1997 pg. 97