Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
The composer of "Take the A-Train" and other Duke Ellington hits, Billy Strayhorn struggled with obscurity and prejudice as a successful gay man in the tumultuous middle of the 20th century.
Awards & Recognition
Winner
2008 Peabody Awards - George Foster Peabody Award
Winner
2007 News and Documentary Emmy Awards - Best Documentary
Nominee
2007 News and Documentary Emmy Awards - Music and Sound
As Duke Ellington's co-composer, arranger, and right-hand man, Billy Strayhorn wrote some of the greatest American music of the 20th century. But as a gay man in the ’40s and ’50s, Strayhorn had to lead a discreet existence, while Ellington played to thunderous applause on center stage. Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life tells the story of the unheralded man who changed jazz and popular music forever, maintaining artistic and personal integrity, while challenging prejudice along the way.