Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn

A 1996 nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, this perceptive, meticulously researched biography rescues from obscurity the gifted Billy Strayhorn (1915-67), Duke Ellington's arranger and composer of many popular Ellington Orchestra tunes, including "Take the `A' Train." Worshipped by jazz aficionados as the creative power behind the Ellington throne, Strayhorn preferred to live quietly while his friend/boss took the bows. In clear prose and with careful attention to nuance, David Hajdu documents Strayhorn's contributions to the Ellington magic and delineates an attractive personality who found good in almost everyone he met.