Billy Strayhorn: A Lush Crop of Reissues

Pianist, composer, and ultimate Ellingtonian Billy Strayhorn has become a focus of major attention -- nearly three decades after his death. David Hajdu's sensitive and probing Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) has hit the bookstores simultaneously with the issue of three major Strayhorn CDs. For anyone wondering why this sudden Strayhorn bonanza, the answer might be that we're finally becoming aware of his compositions. "Take the A Train," "Satin Doll," "Lush Life" -- they're all his, not Ellington's, but he was as self-effacing as the Duke was ego-aggrandizing.

The best of this new trio of discs is Lush Life: The Billy Strayhorn Songbook (Verve). This 16-artist compilation is a generous and astutely compiled cross-section of Strayhorn's finest compositions, selected by biographer Hajdu as a supplement to his book. Strayhorn himself appears as pianist with Johnny Hodges on "Your Love Has Faded," a wistful lament tailored to Hodges's bittersweet alto-sax tone. (Ben Webster and Louie Bellson are the only other former Ellingtonians on the compilation.) High points include Sarah Vaughan's operatically grand "Lush Life" (more "lush" as in luxuriant than "lush" as in alcoholic) and a jaunty and bopping "Johnny Come Lately" by Cecil Taylor with soprano-saxophonist Steve Lacy. Stan Getz's "Blood Count," with a rhythmic foundation echoing the sound of a dripping IV bottle during cancer therapy, a sound both Getz and Strayhorn knew in harrowing detail, is heartstopping.

If you want to hear an entire disc's worth of Strayhorn performing without Ellington, there are few choices. Lush Life (Red Baron), a hodge-podge of Strayhorn performances in solo, small-band, and big-band formats, includes the only Strayhorn vocal performance of "Lush Life," which reveals his sly humor as well as coolly sophisticated angst. Even more endearing is The Peaceful Side of Billy Strayhorn (Capitol), a low-key Paris session from 1961 now in its first CD incarnation. Saddled with a string quartet and clueless vocal-chorus oohing, Strayhorn nevertheless shines as a romantic pianist of delicate moods, all with a French twist. Hajdu's book explains Strayhorn's love of France: he adored French impressionist painting and classical music. There's a hint of Monet's water lilies in his shimmering performances of "Passion Flower" and "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing." And his tone colors and quirky harmonic contours sound rooted in Debussy and Ravel. This is dreamy music -- even "Take the A Train," which here sounds more like an genteel imperative to take a train to Heaven rather than Harlem.

The Dutch Jazz Orchestra under the inspired leadership of Jerry Van Rooijen reminds us how many worthwhile Strayhorn compositions are just now being discovered and getting their debut recordings. Portrait of a Silk Thread (Kokopelli) offers polished interpretations of a dozen Strayhorn tunes, eight of which are world premieres. Although none of the band's soloists possesses the fiercely individual voice of a Hodges or a Ben Webster, their affection for Strayhorn's lush music is warming.

-- Norman Weinstein