1: Biographer DAVID HAJDU. He's just written "Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn" (Farrar, Straus and Girous). The book not only explores the life of Strayhorn, a Duke Ellington collaborator, but also the lives of other black and gay artists in New York from the 1930s to the 1960s. Under Ellington, Strayhorn composed "Take the 'A' Train," "Lush Life" and "Something to Live For." But he did not gain much recognition and has been called "the great unsung hero of American music." HAJDU is an editor for "Entertainment Weekly."
Copyright 1996 Fresh Air
