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Agate Fine Print.

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER Dear Reader, I’m writing to tell you about STRAYHORN: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE (Agate Bolden; 978-1-932841-98-5; November 10, 2015; $35), edited by A. Alyce Claerbaut and David Schlesinger. This beautiful, oversized volume commemorates the life and music of Billy Strayhorn, one of the most important—yet underappreciated—contributors to 20th century American music. The collection is being released to coincide with the centennial of Strayhorn’s birth.

This luxurious coffee-table book collects essays, interviews, photographs, and Strayhorn’s manuscript scores to explore the little-known life of the composer who is perhaps best known for the 28 years he spent working in collaboration with Duke Ellington. However, this incomplete story doesn’t begin to describe Strayhorn’s contributions to music—not to mention the inspiring story of his personal life.

Posthumously, Strayhorn has emerged as one of the major forces who shaped the jazz canon. One way to remember these accomplishments is to consider what he left behind—not only the songs he wrote, but also the memories he left with friends, family, and colleagues. This book attempts to bring these songs and stories to a wider audience by collecting biographical history, personal memoir, critical appreciation, and images relating to various facets of Strayhorn’s life.

The first part of Strayhorn delves into every stage of the composer’s career, beginning with his abusive upbringing and early success to later partnerships with Lena Horne and the Copasetics. The second part of the book is rich with insights into topics that range from Strayhorn’s family and intellectual pursuits to his involvement with the civil rights movement and his open homosexuality.

Featuring contributions from Strayhorn’s biographer David Hajdu, film director Robert Levi, music scholar Walter van de Leur, as well as a foreword by jazz great Ramsey Lewis, Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life is an enthralling collection that will be treasured by jazz aficionados everywhere.

I hope you will consider this title for feature or review. A. Alyce Claerbaut, Billy Strayhorn’s niece and the president of Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc., is also available for interviews. If you are interested in more information about the book, please reach out to Jacqueline Jarik, Agate’s marketing and publicity assistant, at 847.475.4457 ext. 4#, or email her at jarik@agatepublishing.com.

Yours,

Doug Seibold

Agate Publishing, Inc. 1328 Greenleaf St. Evanston IL 60202 847.475.4457 agatepublishing.com

Agate Fine Print.

Praise for jazz legend Billy Strayhorn “Billy Strayhorn was always the most unselfish, the most patient, and the most imperturbable, no matter how dark the day. I am indebted to him for so much of my courage since 1939. He was my listener, my most dependable appraiser, and as a critic he would be the most clinical, but his background—both classical and modern—was an accessory to his own good taste and understanding.”

—Duke Ellington “It made us all think a little differently about what we were doing.”

—Benny Carter “Strayhorn is like Beethoven—every note he wrote seems inevitable.”

—Cliff Colnot, principal conductor, Civic Orchestra of Chicago “To me [Billy Strayhorn] is the boss of the arrangers.”

—Quincy Jones “Billy was the source of my consciousness raising. . . . I had to learn to accept myself first, and that’s what Billy helped me do.”

—Lena Horne “That’s all I did—that’s all I ever did—try to do what Billy Strayhorn did.”

—Gil Evans “All those sevenths—man, I never heard anything like those things until him.”

—Dizzy Gillespie “When Strayhorn came on the scene, he just blew us away.”

—Gerry Mulligan “Strayhorn had created a personal musical style in which he sought and found refuge. His music at the same time reflected beauty and conflict, and allowed for multiple readings.”

—Walter van de Leur, author of Something to Live For Agate Publishing, Inc. 1328 Greenleaf St. Evanston IL 60202 847.475.4457 agatepublishing.com

Agate Fine Print.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jacqueline Jarik Agate Marketing and Publicity Assistant 847.475.4457 ext. 4#, jarik@agatepublishing.com

Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life Edited by A. Alyce Claerbaut and David Schlesinger News Hook: An exploration of the life, work, and legacy of the jazz legend Billy Strayhorn, published to commemorate the centennial of his birth.

Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life celebrates the life of late jazz legend Billy Strayhorn, who is perhaps best know for the 28 years he spent as Duke Ellington’s “writing and arranging companion.” But Strayhorn’s significant contributions to the American jazz canon extend well beyond his partnership with Ellington—and they have been underrated for years.

Strayhorn collects essays, photography, and rare memorabilia—such as handwritten scores—to chronicle every stage of Strayhorn’s life. The book is divided into two major sections. Part One: Musical Orbits focuses on the arc of Strayhorn’s musical life, starting with his childhood musical education and ending with his post-Ellington work. Part Two: Moral Freedoms explores Strayhorn’s life outside of music, including his civil rights activism and his open homosexuality.

Contributors include Ramsey Lewis, award-winning jazz composer and musician; David Hajdu, Strayhorn’s award-winning biographer; Walter van de Leur, jazz musicologist and author of the definitive book about Strayhorn’s music; Robert Levi, director of the Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life documentary; and the board members of Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc., many of whom are Strayhorn’s family.

Enthralling, enriching, and visually captivating, this collection lauds a beloved jazz icon and captures a legacy that will influence generations to come.

A. Alyce Claerbaut is the president of Billy Strayhorn Songs Incorporated. She is very involved with the arts scene of Chicago, particularly with jazz organizations.

David Schlesinger is a writer and editor living in California.

Strayhorn, Agate Bolden, 978-1-932841-98-5, November 10, 2015, 9.25 x 11.25, 208 pp., $35, Music/Individual Composer & Musician/Biography Trade Cloth ### Agate Publishing, Inc. 1328 Greenleaf St. Evanston IL 60202 847.475.4457 agatepublishing.com

Agate Fine Print.

Q. & A. with A. Alyce Claerbaut, coeditor of Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life You’re still very involved with the jazz scene. What do you think Strayhorn’s greatest impact was on jazz music?

Billy Strayhorn penned some of the world’s most definitive jazz standards and most enduring American music of the 20th century: “Lush Life,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Day Dream,” and “Lotus Blossom” to name only a few. These songs still excite musicians and listeners for a number of reasons, but partly because Billy brought new ideas into jazz. For example, Dr. Billy Taylor credits him with expanding the swing vocabulary of chord voicings.

Jazz writer Will Friedwald recently summarized Strayhorn’s musical legacy well in the Wall Street Journal. He said, “Strayhorn’s music is also beyond time. . . . In fact, Strayhorn has exerted such a profound effect on orchestrators that, far from seeming dated, his works still sound futuristic—ahead not only of their time, but also of ours.”

Artists are still seeking to push the boundaries of jazz today, and many are recording Strayhorn because of this timelessness. Contemporary artists are recording his works in record numbers: everyone from the 11-year-old pianist Joey Alexander, who cites Strayhorn’s work as one of his influences, to pop star Lady Gaga.

What was Strayhorn’s perception of himself as a composer and performer?

Billy’s perception of himself as an artist was much broader than the way that many people have reductively understood him—as nothing other than an arranger and composer for Duke Ellington. He was distressed at not being credited for many of his compositions.

When he died he left a box of original manuscripts that included things he wrote as early as his teen years. The Strayhorn repository contains roughly 8,000 pages of manuscripts that unlocked the door to understanding the magnitude of his contribution. They show that he valued his compositions greatly and that he had truly expansive interests and abilities. He used to say, “All music is beautiful.” He adapted his works to reflect his knowledge of classical music, for example. His music speaks for itself and it says a lot about Billy’s view of himself as a universal composer.

Considering his central position in the jazz community, why didn’t he fight for more recognition for his work?

What do you fight with? Even though he was a member of the Ellington organization, Duke Ellington was the Ellington organization. Billy did insist on getting credit in the ’50s, which resulted in his name appearing as co-composer on many major Ellington projects, for some of which he was the architect. In addition, Joe Morgen—Duke’s publicist—was homophobic and saw to it that his name wasn’t credited. Tempo Music also copyrighted many of Billy’s songs as Ellington composition in whole and in part.

This book notes that Strayhorn shared credit for many songs he alone composed. Why is it important that this be corrected now?

History is easy to write and hard to correct. History has recorded Billy as a footnote to the Ellington legacy. The organizers of Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc. are his nieces and nephews Agate Publishing, Inc. 1328 Greenleaf St. Evanston IL 60202 847.475.4457 agatepublishing.com

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and we knew him and Ellington personally. It is up to us to correct the record because those who come after us will never be as close to the story. The centennial may be the last chance that we as family can make a statement that corrects the record.

How do you think this book will affect Billy Strayhorn’s legacy?

In short, I think this book will increase the public’s appreciation for Billy’s courageously lived life and his extraordinary music. This book is timely, and I think it will attract a general readership to his story. Musicians will deepen their understanding of him. The book addresses his life as an openly gay black man in the ’40s in more detail than any other work has. It’s driven by powerful images showing his partners and his involvement in the civil rights movement. Readers can see the people Billy knew, the clothes he wore, and the places he inhabited—all of these details reveal telling parts of his character that we hope will flesh out his legacy.

In addition to his family members, other people round out Billy’s legacy including Walter van de Leur, who provides a listening guide and recording recommendations alongside excerpts of hand-written manuscripts. David Hajdu and Rob Levi provide interviews by many famous artists commenting on their relationship to Strayhorn, including Clark Terry, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Marian McPartland, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, and Terell Stafford, among others.

What do you hope readers—jazz devotees and new fans alike—learn from this book?

The lesson from Strayhorn’s story is simply that all people have the capacity to overcome major obstacles and challenges that life presents if they remain true to themselves. Despite the difficulties that Strayhorn was born into, the societal challenges he faced as a gay, black man in a time when both were inestimable obstacles, and his complex relationship with a cultural icon, he chose to live his life in a way that provides a model for knowing our gifts and practicing them with integrity.

What else is your organization, Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc., doing to strengthen Strayhorn’s legacy?

There are two entities: Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc. (BSSI) and the Billy Strayhorn Foundation (BSF). The former is the corporate entity that is responsible for conducting the business of music. BSSI has retained the services of a co-publisher to license the music, collect royalties, and maintain the catalogue and all aspects of its exploitation. Our current co-publisher is Reservoir Media. The grand rights for stage projects are fully retained by BSSI and are administered as such. BSSI also provides support for artists and performers by providing published scores through its relationship with Alfred Publishing. BSF is a not-forprofit organization that supports musical endeavors of upcoming musicians mainly through jazz education. The activities include support for scholarships and jazz education organizations. BSSI and BSF have participated annually in the Jazz Education Network (and its earlier iteration) since 1997.

Agate Publishing, Inc. 1328 Greenleaf St. Evanston IL 60202 847.475.4457 agatepublishing.com