Remembering Billy Strayhorn, born on this day (1915-1967).

William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967), Billy Strayhorn, was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include “Take the ‘A’ Train”, “Chelsea Bridge”, “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing”, and “Lush Life”.

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On November 29, 1915, a child was born at the Miami Valley Hospital in the city of Dayton (Ohio). The baby had serious problems with rickets and the doctor who delivered the baby told his parents, Lilliam and William Thomas Strayhorn, that he had little chance of survival. They did not even bother to choose a name for him and on the birth certificate they only registered him as “boy” Strayhorn.

At five years old, “boy” Strayhorn was very little (he looked two years younger than he was), with a round face and quite cheeky. His parents decided to name him William and regularized the birth certificate. Meanwhile, the Strayhorns had settled in Pittsburg (Pennsylvania).

William’s first contact with a piano was at his maternal grandmother’s house in North Caroline, where he spent long periods of time: “My grandmother played the piano, and she taught me several of the songs she performed in church, such as “When the roll.” is called up yonder I’ll be there” which was my mother’s favorite.

Williams’ house in Pittsburg lacked a piano and he could not continue his musical exercises there, so he looked for a job as a delivery boy in a drugstore and with the money he saved he was able to buy his desired instrument.

At the age of 12, William enrolled in classes at Westinghouse High School where he studied for five years. During that time he was part of the school’s Senior Orchestra as a pianist and began to compose music combining elements of jazz with classical music.

In 1935, William – who from now on I will call him Billy – premiered a musical titled “Fantastic Rhythm” at Westinghouse High School, which featured a chorus of dancers and a band led by him. Among the ten songs that made up the work is the one titled “My Little Brown Book,” which Duke Ellington recorded with his orchestra on June 26, 1942.

Before meeting Duke Ellington, Billy formed a trio in 1937 with clarinetist Jerry Eisner and drummer Calvin Dort under the name “Mad Hatters.” Their first performance was at Billy’s Club. The owner liked what he heard and ended up hiring the group to entertain every weekend for a year. The music they performed were Strayhorn compositions such as “Something to live for”, which we will find again a few lines below. Billy also played regularly at the Rakuen Lake resort on “solo piano.” His reputation grew in Pittsburgh and several bands in this city hired him as an arranger.

“Crawford Grill #1” was an institution in Pittsburgh. It opened its doors towards the middle of the first decade of the 20th century at the hands of businessman William “Gus” Greenlee. It was a beautiful three-story place. The boss’s office was located on the third floor and only VIP people could enter.

The first floor was a jazz club where blacks and whites could dance to good jazz and where there was never any problem in this regard. The second floor was a restaurant called the Rumpus Room of Crawford Grill that offered two offerings. The first one was called “Chill Night” and the protagonist was Greenlee, but in the kitchen. The second was known as “Jewish Night” and the star was Helen – the wife of a businessman – also in charge of the kitchen. This floor was where Duke Ellington and many of his musicians visited when the orchestra was performing in Pittsburgh.

David Perelman, a young student at the University of Pittsburgh’s College of Pharmacy who loved jazz, had heard Billy Strayhorn play on several occasions. He was amazed by his music and wanted to give him a hand in any way possible to get him out of the anonymity of being known only in Pittsburgh. David’s best friend was a pharmacy student like him named George Greenlee and he was Gus Greenlee’s nephew. One day he told him: “George, I know a boy who is one of the best musicians I have ever heard in my life and it doesn’t seem like he has any chance of making a big leap. Your uncle knows all the great musicians, could he introduce you to any of them? George agreed.

After midnight on December 1, 1938, George entered his uncle’s club and went up to the second floor since he knew that Duke Ellington was with him. Once Gus introduced him to his nephew, he turned to Duke and said, “ Duke, I have a good friend who has written some songs and I would like you to listen to them.” George knew it was almost impossible for the musician to refuse in front of his uncle, so Duke responded, “Well, why don’t we meet at the Stanley Theater tomorrow after my first screening?” And the appointment was closed.

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The next day George had met Billy in front of the theater at one in the afternoon. They entered it and went to Duke’s dressing room, which was very spacious with a table and several chairs and a piano located on one of the walls. They found him reclining in a chair with his eyes closed. Next to him was his valet. George introduced him to Billy and Duke without opening his eyes told him: “Sit down at the piano and let me hear what you’ve done . ”

Before starting to play Billy commented: “Mr. Ellington this is the way you play the song “Sophisticated Lady” . And he performed it exactly the same as Ellington did on stage. When he finished he said: “Now, this is the way I would touch it.” Billy changed key, substituted several chords, and played it at a slightly faster tempo.

When Duke finished, he didn’t make any comments to Billy, but he said to his valet: “Tell Harry to come” (Harry Carney, baritone sax player in his orchestra). When he arrived, Duke said to Billy, “ Can you play the same thing?” Strayhorn not only played the same thing, but continued with other songs composed by Ellington, such as “Solitude” but interpreting them in his own way. This time it was Carney who left the dressing room and returned with singer Ivie Anderson and saxophone player Johnny Hodges.

The whole group surrounded Billy and he dared to play his songs like “Something to live for” which he also sang.

During the entire time that Strayhorn was playing, Ellington remained behind him and at one point placed his hands on the shoulders of the now pianist, as if to show him what he was feeling.

This session ended with these words from Duke to Billy: “Well, I want you in my organization. I have to find a way to integrate you into it. I have to figure out how to do it once I get back to New York.”

In 1939, Billy Strayhorn accepted the conditions, whatever they were, to collaborate with Duke Ellington. He told him that he should go to New York and the Harlem neighborhood. He even told her that the easiest way to get home was to take the “A” train and get off at the Sugar Hill station.

In the first meeting between Strayhorn and Ellington at the latter’s home, the conductor asked his new collaborator if he remembered a song of his that he had played when he met him at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh. Billy knew that he was referring to the song titled “Something to live for,” which became the first song that the orchestra recorded composed by him. The date was March 21, 1939 in New York. The vocalist was Jean Eldridge. If we take a look at the credits of the album we will see that Duke Ellington appears as a co-composer. Those were the “tithes and first fruits” that Billy had to pay to the Duke. Something that was quite common.

During 1939, Billy Strayhorn composed a song based on the instructions that Duke gave him so that he could find his house in Harlem. He also wrote him a letter that says:

You have to take the A train / to get to Sugar Hill and get to Harlem / If you miss the A train / you’ll realize you’ve missed the quickest way to get to Harlem / Hurry, get on the train, it’s coming / listen to how The rails vibrate / All aboard, let’s get on the A train / We’ll soon arrive at Sugar Hill in Harlem.

Strayhorn wrote “Take the ‘A’ Train” for Ellington, but from the outset he had serious doubts about whether the song was really appropriate for his orchestra to perform. I was not at all sure that in “Take the ‘A’ train” those hallmarks so present in Ellington’s works were perceived. It seemed like a song more appropriate for Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. For all this he decided to keep the score in a drawer, but at that time a decision was going to modify the rules that until now governed between composers and North American radio stations.

ASCAP – The North American Society of Authors and Publishers, similar to our SGAE – made the decision to increase the royalties that radio stations had to pay by almost 400% if they wanted to broadcast music composed by any of their members. This fact sparked a dispute between ASCAP and the radio stations. The first measure that the authors’ society took was to prohibit songs by its members from being broadcast on the radio, which was a hard blow for Ellington, since all of his work was registered with ASCAP.

Duke met with his son Mercer and Strayhorn (who were not members of ASCAP) and asked them to show him all the music they had written. As the two were preparing to deliver their works to Ellington, Mercer watched as Strayhorn stood up, read a sheet of music, crumpled it up, and threw it into the trash can. Mercer picked up the sheet music, read it, and told Strayhorn, “Don’t throw this away. “It’s very good.” And this is how “Take the ‘A’ Train” found its way into Duke’s hands.

The song had an excellent reception from the listeners of the different radio stations in which the Duke’s orchestra performed it.

On February 5, Ellington’s band recorded it in Hollywood. These were the musicians: Rex Stewart (c); Wallace Jones (t); Ray Nance (t); Lawrence Brown (tb); Tricky Sam Nanton (tb); Juan Tizol (vtb); Barney Bigard (cl); Johnny Hodges (ace); Otto Hardwick (ace); Ben Webster (ts); Harry Carney (b.s.); Duke Ellington (p); Fred Guy (g); Jimmie Blanton (b); Sonny Greer (R).

“Take the ‘A’ Train” became the orchestra’s “signature theme” for more than fifteen years, replacing “Sepia Panorama.”

1941 HITS ARCHIVE: Take The “A” Train – Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn

Original recording of the famed Ellington theme.

Quincy Jones said these words about Strayhorn’s song : “Take the ‘A’ Train” was the Holy Grail. It identifies a population, it identifies a lifestyle: that of the “Harlem Renaissance”. It’s incredible. It covers everything and says it all in 32 bars.”

In this article I have only talked about a couple of songs composed by Billy Strayhorn. I will remedy this in another article in which I will write exclusively about the songs, which in my opinion and with due prudence, I consider the most emblematic of his extensive and brilliant discography.

Here and now I want to record that Billy Strayhorn was one of the best American composers of all times, but he has passed through the history of music like a ghost in the shadow of Duke Ellington, but not through his fault: “Every time who had a harmonic or melodic problem my eyes were drawn to Billy Strayhorn. We talked to each other and everything was focused. He was not, as has often been commented, my alter ego. “Billy Strayhorn was my right hand, my left hand, my brain waves in his head and his in mine.”

Billy Strayhorn died in May 1967 and for thirty years he remained practically invisible to historians, musicologists, the specialized press, disk jockeys… In 1996, the professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism wrote a biography dedicated to Billy Strayhorn entitled “Lush Life” and it seems that perhaps this work (which has been one of my sources for writing this article) will encourage the world of jazz to take serious care of one of its most creative and daring musicians.

On August 28 and November 15, 1967, Duke Ellington and his orchestra paid a heartfelt tribute to the memory of Billy Strayhorn. They titled it “…And His Mother Called Him Bill.” All of the songs on the album were Strayhorn compositions, including some that had not been recorded until then.

The musicians were: Duke Ellington (p); Mercer Ellington (t); Cat Anderson (t); Herbie Jones (t); Cootie Williams (t); Clark Terry (flug); Lawrence Brown (tb); Buster Cooper (tb); Chuck Connors (btb); John Sanders (vtb); Johnny Hodges (as); Russell Procope (as); Jimmy Hamilton (ts); Paul Gonsalves (ts); Harry Carney (bs); Aaron Bell (b); Jeff Castleman (b); Steve Little (d).

DUKE ELLINGTON “Daydream” BILLY STRAYHORN (1968)

Duke Ellington (1968) Daydream (Billy Strayhorn) Johnny Hodges (alto sax).

Billy Strayhorn: Discography

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