On the occasion of Billy Strayhorn’s 110th birthday, The Hairpin Turn celebrates the life and work of one of jazz’s great geniuses.
Strayhorn’s career is inextricably linked to that of Duke Ellington. With the exception of a two-year period in the early 1950s and a single solo album recorded in 1961, all of Strayhorn’s surviving output was made for and with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.
Strayhorn shunned the spotlight and much of his extensive output as a composer and arranger is still uncredited. This episode of The Hairpin Turn examines how Strayhorn transformed both the Ellington sound and how his influence is still felt in the world of jazz and popular music.