1: Fantastic Rhythm: The Pittsburgh Years
2: The Renaissance of Arranging: First Works for and with Duke
Ellington
3: The Strayhorn Effect: A New Way of Writing for Jazz
Orchestra
4: Thinking with the Ear: Strayhorn's Musical Fingerprints
5: Writing and Arranging Companions: Credited and Uncredited
Collaborations
6: "He is He and I am Me": The Ellington-Strayhorn
Collaboration
7: Wounded Love: Away from the Ellington Organization
8: Masterpieces by STrayhorn: Writing for Albums
9: The Whodunnit Game: The Mature Style of Billy Strayhorn
10: North by Southwest: The Final Years
11: Conclusion
Appendix A: Score of Scores: Manuscripts at the Duke Ellinton and
Billy Strayhorn Collections
Appendix B: Billy Strayhorn's Works on Record
Appendix C: Billy Strayhorn's Works on Record (posthumously
premiered)
Appendix D: The Compositions of Billy Strayhorn
Walter van de Leur was the founder and editor of Billy Strayhorn Manuscript Editions. An independent jazz researcher, he currently works for the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Dutch Jazz Archives, and is the artistic co-leader of the Dutch Jazz Orchestra.
"An epochal work--groundbreaking, fearless, sensitive, and
exquisitely modulated, much like the music it illuminates.
Something to Live For is the best possible book about Billy
Strayhorn's art and a highwater mark of music scholarship."--David
Hajdu, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
"The celebration of Billy Strayhorn's life and legacy continues
with Walter van de Leur's magnificent new book. Something to Live
For immediately takes its place as an absolutely indispensable
addition to the history of the Ellington orchestra and American
music in general."--Ellingtonia
"Richly provocative.... There is a real intellectual hunger in this
exploration to identify the unique glory and lasting contribution
Strayhorn made to the art of jazz.... Jazz musician and historian
Van de Leur subjects Billy Strayhorn's musical arrangements to deep
scrutiny and credibly finds them original, undervalued, frequently
misattributed, and tasting of the sublime."--Kirkus Review
"In this exemplary work, combining meticulous, dedicated research
and brilliant analytic illumination, Van de Leur has brought
Strayhorn, the musician, and his legacy into full and unobstructed
view at last, thus deepening our understanding of Ellingtonia.
Indispensable!"--Dan Morgenstern, Director, Institute of Jazz
Studies, Rutgers University
"For lovers of Ellingtonia, jazz, and twentieth-century music,
Walter van de Leur's new book is indeed Something to Live For. The
first in-depth study of the music of composer-arranger Billy
Strayhorn, this volume is meticulously researched, clearly written,
and enriched with excerpts from Strayhorn's autograph scores. For
the first time, we can learn the details of Strayhorn's monumental
28-year contribution to the Duke Ellington Orchestra and music
he wrote for other contexts. Something to Live For: The Music of
Billy Strayhorn sets a new standard of excellence for jazz
musicology."--Bill Kirchner, Composer-arranger, saxophonist, jazz
historian,
producer, educator, and editor of The Oxford Companion to Jazz
"Richly provocative.... There is a real intellectual hunger in this
exploration to identify the unique glory and lasting contribution
Strayhorn made to the art of jazz.... Jazz musician and historian
Van de Leur subjects Billy Strayhorn's musical arrangements to deep
scrutiny and credibly finds them original, undervalued, frequently
misattributed, and tasting of the sublime."--Kirkus Review
"The celebration of Billy Strayhorn's life and legacy continues
with Walter van de Leur's magnificent new book. Something to Live
For immediately takes its place as an absolutely indispensable
addition to the history of the Ellington orchestra and American
music in general."--Ellingtonia
"This scholarly evaluation of Strayhorn's compositions still
manages to pay homage to the visionary force behind some of the
20th century's greatest music."--Publishers Weekly
"An epochal work--groundbreaking, fearless, sensitive, and
exquisitely modulated, much like the music it illuminates.
Something to Live For is the best possible book about Billy
Strayhorn's art and a highwater mark of music scholarship."--David
Hajdu, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
"Van de Leur posits that Strayhorn was not merely Ellington's alter
ego but a distinctly different composer who had a direct influence
on Ellington's music...this evaluation of Strayhorn's compositions
manages to pay homage to the visionary force behind some of the
20th century's greatest music."--Publishers Weekly
"In this exemplary work, combining meticulous, dedicated research
and brilliant analytic illumination, Van de Leur has brought
Strayhorn, the musician, and his legacy into full and unobstructed
view at last, thus deepening our understanding of Ellingtonia.
Indispensable!"--Dan Morgenstern, Director, Institute of Jazz
Studies, Rutgers University
"For lovers of Ellingtonia, jazz, and twentieth-century music,
Walter van de Leur's new book is indeed Something to Live For. The
first in-depth study of the music of composer-arranger Billy
Strayhorn, this volume is meticulously researched, clearly written,
and enriched with excerpts from Strayhorn's autograph scores. For
the first time, we can learn the details of Strayhorn's monumental
28-year contribution to the Duke Ellington Orchestra and music
he wrote for other contexts. Something to Live For: The Music of
Billy Strayhorn sets a new standard of excellence for jazz
musicology."--Bill Kirchner, Composer-arranger, saxophonist, jazz
historian,
producer, educator, and editor of The Oxford Companion to Jazz
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