Gay chorus sings the praises of Strayhorn

You have to believe that Billy Strayhorn would have loved “Lush Life -- the Music of Billy Strayhorn” at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Friday night (also presented on Saturday and Sunday).

A modest, mannered but extraordinarily gifted composer, arranger and pianist, Strayhorn spent virtually his entire career working with Duke Ellington, generating music that was part of the definitive soundtrack of America in the ‘40s and ‘50s. He did so as an openly gay African American at a time when homophobia and racial prejudice were endemic elements in society.

The program, performed by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and an all-star big band, honored the memory of Strayhorn’s music and the courageousness of his life.

An insightful narration by singer-playwright Bill Porter brought the elements together, describing the unremarkable background of the Ohio-born Strayhorn, introducing his remarkable music, recalling his determination to meet Ellington and praising his insistence upon being true to himself.

Porter also sang “Lush Life,” an astonishingly sophisticated song, lyrically and musically, written while Strayhorn was a teen. The program’s other featured artist, Tierney Sutton, offered a jaunty rendering of “Satin Doll” and an especially touching version of the lovely ballad “Day Dream.”

But the evening belonged, for the most part, to the Chorus, the musicians and the dancers, and to their inspired efforts to do justice, aurally and visually, to the full range of Strayhorn’s music, from the familiar to the obscure.

The richness of the Chorus sound on the poignant “Something to Live For” and the rarely heard “September Rain” (in which Lorraine Feather’s atmospheric lyrics are set to the instrumental classic “Chelsea Bridge”) presented an exquisite display of densely textured masculine harmonies.

Lesser-known Strayhorn works such as “On the Wrong Side of the Tracks,” “Oo, You Make Me Tingle,” “Kissin’ Bug” and “Rhythm Pum-Te-Pum” served as frameworks for well-crafted set pieces by several groups of dancers. And the big band maintained the vibrant sound and colorful timbres of the Ellington Orchestra.

Strayhorn’s years within the glow of Ellington’s fame tended to obscure the magnitude of his own stellar qualities. All praise, then, to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles for providing a potent reminder of one of the jazz world’s most significant talents.