Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn [Hardcover] Review

Billy Strayhorn'scontribution to the work of Duke Ellington is immeasurable--at last he is given his full due in David Hajdu's perceptive and insightful portrait of this largely unsung genius of 20th centurymusic. Hajdu's sensitive biography, derived from countless interviewswith friends, family and fellow musicians, reveals Strayhorn as a complex,creative individual who preferred to stay discreetly in Ellington's shadow throughout much of his life.It also provides a telling portrait of a manwho lived his life as a gay African-American musician completely out in the open during a time in this country when it was both difficult anddangerous to do so.Hajdu has givenus telling portraits as well of manyof Strayhorn's contemporaries such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, JohnnyHodges, Ray Nance and the Duke himself who loved "Swea-Pea"(Strayhorn's nickname) as a part of himself.Not only a portrait of acreative, intellectual genius, "Lush Life"also gives us aninsightful look into the world of jazz and African-american popular musicthat grew out of an age of racism and discrimination.The concludingchapters that chronicle Strayhorn's involvement inthe civil rightsmovement of the early '60's andhis friendships with Martin Luther Kingand Medgar Evans and his own battle with the throat cancer that cut hislife short (at age fifty-one) areespecially powerful.Throughout thebook, Hajduprovides lively anecdotal writing while remaining a respectfuljournalist and chronicler of his subject.I highly recommend this book toanyone interested in jazz history, popular culture, orpurely for aportrait of an understated genius.

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