(Vocal Jazz) VA - Lush Life: The Billy Strayhorn Songbook - 1996, MP3, 320 kbps

As an informal soundtrack for his revealing biography of Billy Strayhorn, Lush Life, David Hajdu selected and annotated the tracks for this rambling dig through the PolyGram archives. In doing so, Hajdu ranges far afield in date and idiom, yet the overall impression is amazingly consistent of Strayhorn as an elegant yet haunted musical figure whose work has a strikingly individual and timeless signature. Strayhorn himself is typically lodged in the background, appearing on two lovely Johnny Hodges tracks, "Your Love Has Faded" and "Three and Six," a Louie Bellson rarity, "Far-Eastern Weekend," and Ben Webster's "Chelsea Bridge" in various roles arranging, conducting, and playing piano. Yet the mighty Ellington band only turns up on on "Something to Live For," suavely backing a marvelously evocative Ella Fitzgerald interpretation. Given the tone of the book, one imagines that the scarcity of Ellington tracks was deliberate, to let Strayhorn's work shine on its own without having to compete with Duke's flashy aura. A few random high points: Dizzy Gillespie's pithy, witty, and swinging solo in "U.M.M.G.," a great, dynamic Oliver Nelson chart backing Art Farmer's "Rain Check," Cecil Taylor's slightly fractured version of "Johnny Come Lately" live at Newport, and the inevitable "Take the 'A' Train" in a JATP jam. Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Peterson, Frank Morgan, Billy Eckstine, Joe Henderson, and Stan Getz also turn up as leaders. Ultimately, Ellington's passionate And His Mother Called Him Bill album remains the essential Strayhorn sampler, with this disc as a backup to illustrate the impact he has had upon the jazz repertoire.