After reading The Blues Walked In (Kathleen George, historical fiction with Lena Horne), I wanted to know more about Billy Strayhorne. I also signed up for a "class" about Pittsburgh Jazz and this was one of the related books. (I missed the first week of the four week class, and learned from an acquaintance that she was disappointed in the class. I will probably go for the second class and decide if I want to continue.)

Billy Strayhorn is portrayed as a supremely talented and happy person, despite some hardships in his life. Lush Life seems to be an honest portrait of the man, his music and his personal life. Strayhorn was more than a musician and composer, he was well-read, knowledgable about art, active in the civil rights movement, close to his mother, siblings and a fun person.

"For Strayhorn's group, a bonus of adding Mayer [Charles 'Buzzy' Mayer] was one guaranteed booking. Mayer's mother owned an amusement part about fourteen miles southwest of the Pittsburgh city limits, between the towns of Bridgeville and Canonsburg." (41) [I had never heard of this park, possibly called Rakuen Lakes? 1938]

"The guy went through a lot of shit in his life, from his father right on through school - the kids calling him a sissy, you know... He kept it all in and put on a big front that everything was fine, nothing bothered hin. Then he sat down and wrote all that music with all that emotion. All his feeling came out in the music." (88) [quote from Mickey Scrima]

"Finally, we found a place that would sell us some slivovitz, a ceremonial plum brandy. We went back, and we listened to the returns, and we drank. Roosevelt won, but we weren't very happy because we were sick as dogs from the stuff we were drinking." (100) [quote from Claire Gordon about 1944 presidential election night]

"...a benign union of acceptance." (202)