Jazz Articles about Billy Strayhorn

About Billy Strayhorn

Radio & Podcasts

The Legacy of Billy Strayhorn: the Unknown Strayhorn

by Larry Slater
May 1, 2026

Billy Strayhorn ranks in the top tier of jazz composers, along with Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and Jelly Roll Morton.Strayhorn wrote at least one piece a week during the thirty years he worked with Duke Ellington. That was more than the Ellington Orchestra could handle, especially since Duke himself composed constantly. Choices had to be made and thus many pieces fell by the wayside. Among those ill-fated scores were some of the finest works Strayhorn ever ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Legacy of Billy Strayhorn, part III: Such Sweet Thunder and The Far East Suite

by Larry Slater
April 24, 2026

Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington recorded a number of musical suites in the 50s and 60s. The Shakespearean Suite “Such Suite Thunder" ranks up there with the greatest Ellington recordings. “The Far East Suite" was another important collaboration and highpoint in the Ellington discography. The band's famous reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, was all Strayhorn. Ellington's last commercial success, “Satin Doll," was written by Strayhorn.This is the third installment of Strayhorn interpretations with modern jazz takes on Strayhorn compositions. ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Legacy of Billy Strayhorn, part II: Lotus Blossom, Raincheck and some less well known tunes from the Strayhorn songbook.

by Larry Slater
April 17, 2026

Billy Strayhorn spent his career as Duke Ellington's “composing and arranging partner" but it wasn't until relatively recently that his remarkable contribution to jazz was fully appreciated. When Strayhorn's tunes began making their appearance in the early '40s, other musicians took notice. Gerry Mulligan said, “I was part of a small community of very young musicians and arrangers. When Strayhorn came on the scene, he just blew us away because he was doing very complicated, sophisticated things, and they didn't ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Legacy of Billy Strayhorn, part I: Lush Life, Take the A Train and more

by Larry Slater
April 10, 2026

Billy Strayhorn had one of the most unusual careers in jazz. Today his genius as a composer of jazz and song is uniformly acknowledged, but that was not the case during his lifetime. Strayhorn spent his entire career as in Duke Ellington's words, “his composing and arranging partner."Many of his most famous creations were often attributed to Ellington, and Strayhorn rarely sought the limelight. It wasn't until several decades after his death in 1967 that jazz writers and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Omar Thomas, Mark Masters, Billy Strayhorn

by David Brown
June 19, 2025

This week showcases large band music from composer/arrangers Omar Thomas, Gerry Mulligan and Maria Schneider. Bandleader Mark Masters is next with a pair of new albums. With Sam Rivers 100, Masters honors the centenary of the avant-garde jazz pioneer, while on Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance! Masters explores the music of spiritual jazz legend Billy Harper. Bird themes will follow with the David Murray Quartet's new release Birdy Serenade and Rahsaan Roland Kirk 's classic “Serenade to Cuckoo." Next is a ...

Building a Jazz Library

Prescribing Jazz: A Top Ten

by Artur Moral
March 30, 2025

National Doctors' Day is celebrated unevenly across our mistreated planet. It is absent in most countries, while it is observed as a holiday in a few. Coinciding (in the United States and Australia) with this day of recognition for a vital profession, this article is especially directed to the entire jazz-loving medical community, focusing on six compositions related to this sector. The first four pieces will be balanced between two different renditions, while also attempting to maintain some stylistic chronology; ...

Extended Analysis

The Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943

by Chuck Lenatti
November 20, 2024

Duke Ellington was one of the most popular and successful jazz musicians of the first half of the 20th century and according to composer Gunther Schuller and musicologist and historian Barry Kernfeld, “the most significant composer of the genre." Radio broadcasts from his residency at New York's Cotton Club beginning in 1927 extended Ellington's orchestra's national exposure and a parade of hit records, from “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" in 1926 to “C Jam Blues" in 1942, among many ...