[Dixielandjazz] Billy Strayhorn, Frank Sinatra books reviewed - Buffalo News, December 13, 2015

[Robert Ringwald]

Billy Strayhorn, Frank Sinatra books reviewed  
    by Jeff Simon

Buffalo News, December 13, 2015


“Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life.” By Alyce Clarerbaut and David Schlesinger. Bolden/Agate, 196 pages, $35.


OK, so the big centennial years belonged to Frank Sinatra (see the next entry) and Billie Holiday in 2015. To many of us, this is the most celebratory centennial book of them all -- a lavishly illustrated life of Billy Strayhorn, composer of “Lush Life” and “Take the A-Train,” Duke Ellington’s proclaimed alter ego, amanuensis and musical enabler, the man of whom Don Shirley said this: “Many composers in jazz are very good at thinking vertically and horizontally about music. But Billy could write diagonals, curves and circles.” This is a superbly presented life about which there will never be quite enough tribute. The reminiscences told to Strayhorn’s classic biographer David Hajdu among others are as irresistible as the photos. “My right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head,” Duke called him. “My brainwaves in his head and his head in mine.”


“The Cinematic Legacy of Frank Sinatra.” By David Wills. St. Martin’s Press, 304 pages, $35.


It’s widely known that when he took his movies seriously, Frank Sinatra was a hell of a movie actor. This is a deluxe but affordable coffee-table book full of Sinatra photos, and stills and commentary. You’ll learn that Nancy Sinatra’s favorite Sinatra films are “Von Ryan’s Success,” “The Tender Trap,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “From Here to Eternity” and “A Hole in the Head.” And that Sophia Loren actually reported to friends that Sinatra was “a regular gasser” and she “dug him.” A nice l ate arrival for the Sinatra centennial that hit this week. -30-


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