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Inhe left New York for Paris, where he took on his first professional engagement as a pianist. Jazz great Billy Strayhorn lived here with his partner, jazz pianist Aaron Bridgers, from tothough Strayhorn stayed until Source: Queer Music Heritage website.

Header Photo. He appeared in the movie Paris Blues in Christopher D. This project is enriched by your participation!

Homophobia in Jazz JazzTimes

Other city residences associated with Strayhorn include Edgecombe Avenue in and Riverside Drive in Bridgers studied classical piano, but later switched to jazz after hearing the music of famed jazz pianist Art Tatum, who would become his teacher.

Billy Strayhorn, Source: Library of Congress. Source: National Museum of American History. I used to visit all the very gay places Those come-what-may places Where one relaxes on the axis Of the wheel of life To get the feel of life From jazz and cocktails.

Duke Ellington, his creative partner, called Strayhorn “my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine.”.

Another Brother Who Made

Ellington was arguably a father figure and the band was affectionately protective of the diminutive and mild-mannered Strayhorn, nicknamed by the band "Strays", "Weely", and "Swee' Pea". Tax photo of Convent Avenue rightc. Ellington used. Credit: Christopher D.

Aaron Bridgers in the movie "Paris Blues," As the world celebrates Ellington's birthday, we look back on his openly gay pianist, composer, and friend Billy Strayhorn. As a LGBT composer and pianist himself, he produced well-known pieces like “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Chelsea.

Many of his works are being studied in retrospect for their brash but valuable contributions to LGBTQ and black music culture. Share on Facebook Email this. Or a story to share? And he did this in the s, when nobody but nobody did that. Strayhorn (seated at piano) and (left to right) Duke Ellington, Leonard Feather, and Louis Armstrong in Strayhorn was a gifted composer and arranger who seemed to flourish in Duke's shadow.

Photo by Frank Diggs. The two men met inand Ellington immediately hired Strayhorn as second piano and arranger for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. BILLY STRAYHORN (–) was a midth-century jazz pianist, arranger, and composer who toiled for three decades under the long shadow of Duke Ellington.

Two years earlier came Lush Life, David Hajdu’s biography of arranger-composer Billy Strayhorn (), one of the very few openly gay jazzmen of his (or any) time. Billy Strayhorn Billy Strayhorn was a close contemporary of Duke Ellington for many decades.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in an undated photo. Would you like to suggest a different historic site? Do you have your own images of this site? Strayhorn stayed here until after Bridgers moved to Paris. At the age of 23, Strayhorn got a job with the legendary Duke Ellington, and they remained highly successful collaborators for the next three decades.