Billy Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life

Within the last 20 years, the true genius of Billy Strayhorn has come to the forefront of jazz criticism and scholarship. Billy Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life, edited by his niece A. Alyce Claerbaut and David Schlesinger, gathers an insightful collection of essays, photographs and interviews on the life of this jazz great.

Strayhorn, a short, ebullient, gay, African American pianist, was a giant among jazz arrangers and composers from the 1930s until his untimely death from esophageal cancer at the age of 51 in 1967. This gorgeous coffee-table book contains candid photos of the artist at work and at play, including a never-before published photograph of a handwritten "Take the A Train" score that Strayhorn wrote for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Fans of Strayhorn and his particular era of jazz music will be delighted with every page, filled with imagery and words that attempt to explain Strayhorn's striking talent and impact. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer/editor

Powered by: Xtenit