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WILLIAM
THOMAS STRAYHORN
If you
are familiar with the jazz composition, "Take the A Train,"
then you know something about not only Duke Ellington, but
also Billy "Sweet Pea" Strayhorn, its composer.
Strayhorn joined Ellington's band in 1939, at the age of twenty-two.
Ellington liked what he saw in Billy and took this shy, talented
pianist under his wings. Neither one was sure what Strayhorn's
function in the band would be, but their musical talents had
attracted each other. By the end of the year Strayhorn had
become essential to the Duke Ellington Band; arranging, composing,
sitting-in at the piano. Billy made a rapid and almost complete
assimilation of Ellington's style and technique. It was difficult
to discern where one's style ended and the other's began.
The results of the Ellington-Strayhorn collaboration brought
much joy to the jazz world.
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 in 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.
In 1923
Billy entered the first grade in a little wooden school house,
since destroyed. Soon after that, however, his mother moved
her family to Pittsburgh to join Billy's father, James Nathaniel
Strayhorn. Mr. Strayhorn had gotten a job there as a gas-maker
and wire-puller. Charlotte Catlin began to give Billy private
piano lessons. He played the piano everyday, sometimes becoming
so engrossed that he would be late for his job. He also played
in the high school band.
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.
Strayhorn
lived a tremendously productive life. He influenced many people
that he met, and yet remained very modest and unassuming all
the while. For a time he coached Lena Horne in classical music
to broaden her knowledge and improve her style of singing.
He toured the world with Ellington's band and for a brief
time lived in Paris. Strayhorn's own music is internationally
known and honored. It has been translated in French and Swedish.
Some of
Strayhorn's compositions are: "Chelsea Bridge,"
"Day Dream," "Johnny Come Lately," "Rain-check,
and "Clementine." The pieces most frequently played
are Ellington's theme song, "Take the A Train" and
Ellington's signatory, "Lotus Blossom". Some of
the suites on which he collaborated with. Ellington are: "Deep
South Suite," 1947; the "Shakespearean Suite"
or "Such Sweet Thunder," 1957; an arrangement of
the "Nutcracker Suite," 1960; and the "Peer
Gynt Suite," 1962. He and Ellington composed the "Queen's
Suite" and gave the only pressing to Queen Elizabeth
of England. Two of their suites, "Jump for Joy,"
1950 and "My People," 1963 had as their themes the
struggles and triumphs of blacks in the United States. Both
included a narrative and choreography. The latter Strayhorn
conducted at the Negro Exposition in Chicago in 1963. Another
suite similar to these two was "A Drum Is a Woman."
The "Far East Suite" was written after the band's
tour of the East which was sponsored by the State Department.
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.
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Edited by Sonjia Stone, 1983
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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