Billy Strayhorn:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
The history, of the family of William Thomas Strayhorn (his mother called him "Bill") goes back over a hundred years in Hillsborough. One set of great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Craig, lived behind the present Farmer's Exchange. A great grand-mother was the cook for Robert E. Lee. Billy, however, was born in Dayton, Ohio on November 29, 1915. His mother, Lillian Young Strayhorn, brought her children to Hillsborough often. Billy was attracted to the piano that his grandmother, Elizabeth Craig Strayhorn owned. He played it from the moment he was tall enough to reach the keys. Even in those early years, when he played, his family would gather to listen and sing.
His father enrolled him in the Pittsburgh Musical institution where he studied classical music. He had more classical training than most jazz 
musicians of his time.
The young pianist and composer Billy Strayhorn was introduced to Duke Ellington, already a major international star and leader of one of the world's most popular bands, for the first time backstage at an Ellington Orchestra performance at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh in December 1938. After a brief audition, which consisted of Strayhorn playing a few of his own compositions as well as interpretations of Ellington numbers, Duke hired him on the spot. The partnership between these two immensely talented musicians would continue for the next twenty-five years.
While Strayhorn, who rarely performed in public and recorded infrequently, has long been respected in jazz circles as an arranger and as the composer of such classic 
songs as “Take the 'A' Train,” “Chelsea Bridge,” “Lotus Blossom,” and “My Little Brown Book,” he has never really received his due as an independent artist. In his book “Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn,” David Hajdu goes a long way towards remedying this historical oversight by focusing long overdue attention on this shy, modest man who always shunned the spotlight during his lifetime.
“Ellington,” wrote Hajdu, “projected an air of Continental polish that meshed exquisitely with Strayhorn's own infatuation with townhouse culture: jazz and cocktails in the very gay places on the wheel of life. Strayhorn quickly became a stylish fixture in the world of New York nightlife, moving easily between high society parties and Harlem nightclubs like Minton's Playhouse, where he impressed early beboppers like Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach with his piano skills.
Openly homosexual, Strayhorn, says Hajdu, was a triple minority: “he was black, he was gay, and he was a minority among gay people in that he was open about his homosexuality in an era when social bias forced many men and women to keep their sexual identities secret.” If American society was barely prepared to accord a black 
man like Ellington, with all his charisma, poise, and flair for self-promotion, the respect he deserved as a world-class creative artist, it was far from ready to show that same respect for a gay black artist like Strayhorn. Had he sought a higher profile, perhaps leading a band of his own, Hajdu suggests, he would have had to keep his sexual orientation closeted. “Forsaking public prominence, Strayhorn sought personal freedom in service to the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Now there might not be a Billy Strayhorn Orchestra. But there was a Billy Strayhorn.”
In 1946, Strayhorn received the Esquire Silver Award for outstanding arranger. In 1965, the Duke Ellington Jazz Society asked him to present a concert at New York's New School of Social Research. It consisted entirely of his own work performed by him and his quintet. Two years later Billy Strayhorn died of cancer. Duke Ellington's response to his death was to record what the critics cite as one of his greatest works, a collection titled "And His Mother Called Him Bill," consisting entirely of Billy's compositions. Later, a scholarship fund was established for him by Ellington and the Julliard School of Music.
NBJC Salutes a musical legend who lived his life openly and honestly in a time where most did not. Strayhorn's music will live on as will his bravery.
