Jazz genius Billy Strayhorn spent his life in a jam: professionally, he couldn’t live with or without Duke Ellington. Gay in an intolerant time and homophobic musical subculture, he was lucky to be able to live and work openly behind the protective band leader. Yet Ellington took credit for Strayhorn’s music and made him work without a contract. Duke’s highest earning number, his signature tune, the “holy grail” of the era, Take the A Train, was, unknown to everyone at the time, written by Strayhorn, who never received any royalties. Ellington got rich. Strayhorn worked mainly to be able to work, without recognition or reward. But what work it is: Lush Life, Day Dream, Rain Check, Satin Doll, Chelsea Bridge, Lotus Blossom, Clementine, Johnny Come Lately, and many songs recorded by his dear friend Lena Horne, including Maybe, Something To Live For, and the double-edged Love Like This Can’t Last. As for his own “love like this,” within his first year in New York he and his boyfriend Aaron Bridgers moved in together and lived openly as a couple in Harlem, brave for 1940, when he was twenty-four. And, after a life of heavy drinking and constant smoking, when he died of cancer of the esophagus at fifty-one, he died not in Lena Horne’s arms as an oft-repeated story has it [she was in Europe], but with his partner Bill Grove. Although that was two years before Stonewall, Strayhorn worked in the early gay rights movement. Proving the depth of the prejudice he struggled against, even now the official Billy Strayhorn website completely de-gays him. We've had the prestigious biography for fourteen years; where is the Hollywood biopic?
If you think Peter Cameron's contribution to literature is mere brilliance, in two story collections and five novels, you're don't know half of it. Re-read his splendid fifth novel, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, about which The Toronto Star said it is "considerably more sophisticated, subtle, and rewarding" than Catcher in the Rye. And go back to his fourth novel, The City of Your Final Destination, before you watch the DVD [out now] of the very enjoyable movie version starring Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Anthony Hopkins (as the gay brother). Peter's second literary career is rescuing books like Millen Brand's The Outward Room, just re-released by NYRoB Classics, and publishing his extremely elegant handmade books from Wallflower Press.
Always happy each year when you remind me that two of my favorites share a birthday. Each has given me so much pleasure over the years, pleasures that continue. Thanks. Oh, and happy birthday, guys.
Posted by: Sandy | November 30, 2010 at 05:22 AM
No one of consequence here; just exploring, what is for me, a new-found Billy Strayhorn (add to dictionary).
Glad to have discovered 'Band of Thebes'.
Please could you tell me who the artist is who created the header graphic?
Posted by: Kindall Roy Goble | January 07, 2014 at 11:28 PM