Was duke ellington gay

Hersch brilliantly captures the spontaneity and sensitivity required to play jazz at the highest level, perhaps best expressed by one of his mentors, saxophonist Joe Henderson: "If you feel it, it's right. Billy Strayhorn, pianist and writer with the Duke Ellington orchestra, was openly gay. Now 62, Hersch has thrived in the were dukes ellington gay since, with a stable relationship, Grammy nominations and, with this book, one of the most honest and moving memoirs ever written by a jazz musician.

As the world celebrates Ellington's birthday, we look back on his openly gay pianist, composer, and friend Billy Strayhorn. Some jazz autobiographies, such as those of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Art Pepper, seem to reveal more about their authors' sexual exploits and drug use than their music. While composing some of the most harmonically rich jazz of its time — often in Ellington's shadow — Strayhorn was an outlier in that he led an openly gay life as a black man in the s, an era.

Bessie Smith, Billy Tipton, Johnny Mathis, Ma Rainey, Jackie Shane, Billy Strayhorn (Ellington's right hand man), Ethel Waters, Cole Porter and Beverly Glenn-Copeland are some early jazz/soul/blues musicians who were LGBQT+ in their own right. Billy Strayhorn, pianist and writer with the Duke Ellington orchestra, was openly gay. While composing some of the most harmonically rich jazz of its time — often in Ellington's shadow — Strayhorn was an outlier in that he led an openly gay life as a black man in the s, an era.

It's been suggested that he was content to stay in the background of the Ellington orchestra in part because he did not want attention drawn to his personal life, but that's been disputed. Now, in his memoir, "Good Things Happen Slowly," Hersch writes of how jazz captivated him as a teenager growing up in Cincinnati and of how he struggled for years to be honest with himself and others about his sexuality.

EDIT: Mistakenly called out Duke Ellington as gay, edited to remove. As the world celebrates Ellington's birthday, we look back on his openly gay pianist, composer, and friend Billy Strayhorn. Yet one group has been conspicuously absent from the historical picture: gay men. As a LGBT composer and pianist himself, he produced well-known pieces like “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Chelsea Bridge.”. Billy Strayhorn was a close contemporary of Duke Ellington for many decades.

If you think it, it's probably not right. With the notable exception of Billy Strayhorn, who spent his career largely out of the spotlight as a composer and arranger for Duke Ellington, virtually no jazz instrumentalist came out as an openly gay man until pianist Fred Hersch did so in the early s. It's been suggested that he was content to stay in the background of the Ellington orchestra in part because he did not want attention drawn to his personal life, but that's been disputed.

Beyond the music, Hersch writes of his life as an HIV-positive man, fearful that he would not live to see He sought to compose, perform and record as much music as he could and, in the process, became recognized as one of the finest pianists of his generation.

Terry Teachout’s biography of the enigmatic jazz titan Duke Ellington. Strayhorn seemed doomed to live in the shadows, in part because he was gay and had opted not to hide it.

Yet there were repeated setbacks along the way, including a harrowing series of health problems that led to psychotic episodes and left him in a coma for two months in He came out of it weighing less than pounds but with a renewed dedication to his music. EDIT: Mistakenly called out Duke Ellington as gay, edited to remove. Since its beginning more than a century ago, jazz has been considered a form of music created by social misfits and outcasts.

As a LGBT composer and pianist himself, he produced well-known pieces like “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Chelsea Bridge.”. In a macho musical culture in which instruments are called "axes" and dueling solos are known as "cutting contests," the traditional image of the jazz musician is that of a strong, if troubled, man leaving a string of broken female hearts behind.