Anyone who saw (and couldn’t fail to be captivated by) last week’s PBS telecast of the fine hour-long documentary film on Billy Strayhorn should add this CD to their must-have list if they already have bought or plan to buy the film’s soundtrack album (which we already reviewed Here). This is a 21-track reissue collection of the real Billy Strayhorn in performance on recordings from as early as 1945 thru 1961. These were just about the only recordings issued during Strayhorn’s lifetime under his own name. Several of the tunes are credited to both Ellington and Strayhorn but most are entirely the latter’s – including the one everyone seems to think is Ellington’s – his theme Take the A Train – which is Strayhorn’s composition. As the film pointed out, both musicians benefited from their long partnership, but it was a very unequal partnership, with Ellington getting most of the credit.
Strayhorn loved Paris and returned there frequently, where he found himself more accepted not only for his music but also due to his being gay and black. The first ten tracks were recorded in Paris with bassist Gaudry and on some tunes the singers known as the Paris Blue Notes and the Paris String Quartet. I think I like Strayhorn’s version of his gorgeous Passion Flower better than any of the different times Ellington returned to that tune. There are two different versions of the rollicking two-piano piece blending ragtime, stride, boogie woogie and bebop: Tonk; both with Ellington at the second piano. Strayhorn originally wrote the piece as a concerto for piano and band. That gives a glimpse of how both Strayhorn and Ellington might have been America’s leading classical composers had they been white. As it is I still consider the pair of them – together – America’s greatest composers, period! Sound on all the tracks is not up to today’s standard, but that’s understandable.
TrackList: Lust Life, Just a Sittin’ and a Rockin’, Passion Flower, Take The A Train, Strange Feeling, Day Dream, Chelsea Bridge, Multi-Colored Blue, Something To Live For, A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, Cottontail, C Jam Blues, Flamingo, Bang-Up Blues, Tonk, Johnny Come Lately, In a Blue Summer Garden, Great Times, Tonk (Pianistically Allied), Drawing Room Blues, Tonk.
– John Henry
