Was duke ellington gay

This is about the Duke, the Count, and Satchmo … and their wives

I’ve spent a good part of my free period this week listening to and reading a publication that just came out, The Jazz Men: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie Transformed America by Larry Tye. I have had the honor of being the Trustee of the William J. (“Count”) Basie Reliance, for the last 11 years or so, and I was the guardian for his late daughter, Diane Basie until her death in 2022. I’ve met many interesting people through this, including Larry. We’ve spent several hours together recounting stories, visiting the Basies’ home in Addisleigh Park, Queens, and surmising about their lives. I love the way he tells the parallel stories of these 3 jazz giants, whose melody dominated the airwaves and dance halls throughout the middle of the 20th century.

I am particularly interested in how each of these men managed their home lives when they, themselves, were traveling constantly. All 3 had long-term marriages, and all of them admitted to having affairs with women on the road. Duke Ellington married his lofty school sweetheart, Daisy, had a child (Mercer) with her, separated from her after a fe

History

The great jazz composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967) lived in a ground-floor apartment in this Harlem rowhouse at 315 Convent Avenue with his loved one, jazz pianist and composer Aaron Bridgers (1918-2003), from 1939 to 1948. Strayhorn stayed here until 1950 after Bridgers moved to Paris.

At the age of 23, Strayhorn got a job with the legendary Duke Ellington, and they remained highly successful collaborators for the next three decades. Strayhorn, however, lived in the older and more known man’s shadow publicly, one reason being that he was one of the rare men in the jazz world to be openly gay.

friend of Billy Strayhorn, date unknown

During his years in this dwelling, Strayhorn wrote “Take the A Train,” “Lush Life,” and “Lotus Blossom,” as well as most of the music for the musicals Beggar’s Holiday and Jump for Joy. According to playwright Robert Heide, “Lush Life” was a very popular song at Lenny’s Hideaway, a same-sex attracted hangout in Greenwich Village, in the 1950s because of the double definition in its lyrics:

I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come-what-may places

Part 1: Born before 1800

Part 2: Born 1800–1900

Copland

Dietrich

Hughes

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) American composer: Ballets drawing from American folk tradition (Billy the Kid 1938, Appalachian Spring 1944). Also operas, symphonies (El Salon Mexico), film scores. Honors included Pulitzer Prize, Congressional Gold Medal.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist: Bisexual cultural relativist, ethnologist & curator at American Museum of Natural History. Popular works Coming of Age in Samoa and Growing up in New Guinea argued that personality, sexuality & gender are shaped more by culture than heredity.
Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) German-American actress: Cabaret performer in Nazi Berlin, sang lesbian songs, famous role in clip The Blue Angel (1930), then became a Hollywood goddess whose roles emphasized sexual ambiguity. Bisexual glamour offstage, popularized women's trousers.
Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) Spanish poet: Romantic autobiographicl poetry of isolation and suffering, trying to recapture lost pleasures, openly homoerotic. Identified as a dandy, celebrated same-sex attracted culture. Left S

Out & Gay in the Jazz World

Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967) attended high school in Pittsburgh, while studying classical music on the side. His trio played daily on a local radio station, and he wrote a musical for his high school. He also wrote "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the A-Train", "Lotus Blossum" and “Lush Life,” all of which have develop jazz classics.
He started composing both words and harmony for "Lush Life" at age 16, which became a prophetic anthem for his life. He did indeed get to Paris, become a socialite and suffer from alcoholism. That such a world-weary lyric could come from the pen of a teenager is astounding.

At 23 his life changed completely when he met Duke Ellington (above left), who was performing in Pittsburgh in 1938. Ellington was so impressed that he took him into his household, where he lived as part of the family. Ellington's nickname for Billy was "Sweet Pea." Strayhorn worked for Ellington for the next 29 years as an arranger, composer, pianist and collaborator until his early death from esophageal cancer, the result of a lifetime of cigarette use. As Ellington described him, “Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm

.