Time out for some good stuff from WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM
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Lush Life – Billy Strayhorn Broadcast Special on WBGO NY
WBGO presents a new documentary produced by Special Projects Producer Josh Jackson, Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 5:30 p.m. and narrated by Rhonda Hamilton. Blue Note will join in as they release the CD Lush Life, The Untold Story of Billy Strayhorn, which is actually a sound track of the PBS Strayhorn documentary coming Feb. 6 on WNET.
ASCAP Ban Opens the Door for Strayhorn
If it hadn’t been for an ASCAP ban on broadcasting, Billy Strayhorn’s talents might not have come to light.
In 1940 due to a dispute over composing royalties, ASCAP stopped all of its members’ songs from being broadcast on the radio. Duke Ellington was distraught. But his new arranger, 24 year old Billy Strayhorn was not yet a member of ASCAP. On a long train ride to Los Angeles, Strayhorn wrote song after song. When the time came for Ellington to broadcast a new radio show, his own “Sepia Theme” was banned from his usage, so he broadcast Strayhorn’s new “Take the A Train.”
"Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine," once said Ellington.
The Strayhorn Story
Remarkably talented, barely five feet tall, he met Duke backstage in 1939, and played piano for him. The story of how he became one of America’s most original jazz composers while remaining mostly unknown is what you will hear Jan. 23 when WBGO presents Lush Life. The show is part biography and part showcase for how today’s jazz stars approach the works of one of the twentieth century’s most enduring and important composers. We will hear from Bill Charlap, Dianne Reeves, Russell Malone, Joe Lovano, Hank Jones, biographer David Hajdu, and many others.
wbgo.org
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