Billy Strayhorn Net Worth is
$5 Million

Mini Biography

Composer, lyricist, arranger and pianist Billy Strayhorn’s profession was inextricably associated with that of the fantastic Duke Ellington. For pretty much thirty years, the tiny, diffident guy using the gold-rimmed spectacles (nicknamed “Sweepea” by music group people, after a comic reserve character) offered as Ellington’s closest confidante and collaborator. He was also his protégé. In the wake of the performance with the Ellingtonians in Pittsburgh in Dec 1938, the classically-trained Strayhorn posted a few of his very own compositions. He was after that interviewed by Duke who had taken him on as personnel arranger despite his obvious lack of knowledge. With just a little training from a pal (Costs Esch, who wrote preparations for Ina Ray Hutton), Strayhorn were able to come out two parts for alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges (“Savoy Strut” and “Such as a Dispatch in the night time”). In a short time, he present himself responsible for the vast majority of the preparations for music group vocalists, specifically recent appearance Ivie Anderson. Strayhorn won the Straight down Beat Poll seeing that best arranger (1945-48). He constructed a few of the most long lasting and sophisticated figures for the Ellington orchestra, including their theme track “Consider the ‘A’ Teach” as well as the superbly swinging “Johnny Arrive Recently”. He also published beautifully organized and harmonious ballads: “Chelsea Bridge”, “Daydream”, “Lotus Blossom”, “Enthusiasm Blossom”, “IN THE END”, “Something to Live For” (sung by ‘Jean Eldridge’), among numerous others. One of is own earlier items, “Lush Existence” (created in 1938), was sung by Strayhorn himself and withheld from publication for quite some time. It had been destined to become strike for Nat ‘Ruler’ Cole in 1949. Several other numbers had been created and orchestrated jointly by Duke and Strayhorn. Ellington considered Strayhorn affectionately as his ‘correct arm, remaining arm, the eye in the rear of his mind’. For his component, Strayhorn declared inside a 1962 interview: “the actual fact we’re both buying certain character, a particular way of showing a structure, makes us write to the complete, toward the same feeling” (The Duke Ellington Audience, 1993, p. 498). Their focus on the moody and mellow film score for Anatomy of the Murder (1959) is often thought to be among their finest collaborative efforts. Strayhorn also performed an instrumental part on paper the idiomatic and evocative soundtrack for Paris Blues (1961), a film where music and landscapes rather overshadow the technicians from the screenplay. Strayhorn was a normal visitor to Paris where he frequently worked with regional musicians, documenting an introspective recording (the only person in which he’s featured being a soloist under his very own name), ‘The Peacuful Aspect’, for United Performers in 1961. In personal life, Strayhorn was focused on cultural and charitable causes. He was a previous leader of Copasetics, a Harlem-based fraternal firm of entertainers. He was a solid supporter from the civil privileges movement and an individual friend of Martin Luther Ruler. Though openly homosexual, Strayhorn maintained an especially intimate romantic relationship with vocalist and celebrity Lena Horne. Since his loss of life from esophageal tumor in 1967, Strayhorn’s deep impact on jazz continues to be reevaluated using the publication of two seminal biographies in 1996 and 2002 and a 2007 Television documentary entitled “Billy Strayhorn: Lush Lifestyle”.

Known for movies