MovieChat Forums > Paris Blues (1961) Discussion > Billy Strayhorn Wrote the Score

Billy Strayhorn Wrote the Score


Its my understanding that Billy Stryahorn wrote the score and Duke Ellington had nothing to do with this movie. Why is Ellington's name credited for "original music". The Duke just taking credit for something that wasn't
his, which was a carear long habit.

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Isn't it amazing? I found this same information out when I watched a program that talked about Billy Strayhorn life and career. I always admired Duke Ellington but when I watched what he did to Billy, I was confused and disgusted. I can't believe he would do that to him. You would think that at one point in his life be tired of stealing the credit and give billy the creditials he deserved but not even when he died did he do that. How sad.

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According to the book Jazz in the Movies by David Meeker, who is quite an authority on the subject, the score was written by Duke Ellington. Also the CBS CD 'The Count Meets The Duke' the first track 'Battle Royal' is from the Film Paris Blues and is credited to The Duke. Meekers book also says that Paul Gonsalves ghosted for Sidney Poitier and Murray McEarchern ghosted for Paul Newman.

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"Composition" and "Scoring" are two different pursuits. The composer creates the musical piece--Stayhorn and Ellington often collaborated on composition--and the scorer/arranger translates the composition into the various musical "scores" that the musicians need to play the composition.

For instance, everyone knows the tune to "Happy Birthday." But what if you had a twenty-piece orchestra performing it for a party? The scorer/arranger's job is to translate that tune into parts for each of the twenty orchestra members.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn had a long, complex, productive, and rewarding relationship. Strayhorn's Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strayhorn sheds more light on the details and reasons.

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Quite so. And for a very authoritative account of Billy Strayhorn's life, one should read David Hadju's biography "Lush Life." Billy's and Duke's relationship was rather complex. By this point in their relationship (c 1961) Duke and Billy were working together again, after a brief "cooling" period in the early to mid 50s. Duke agreed to give Billy more credit for his work, etc. Why Billy's name does not appear in the credits of this film, then, is bizarre. There could be two reasons. One, at this point, I believe, Duke had hired a new publicist who took great pains to promote the Maestro, and took similarly great pains at erasing any of Billy's contributions to the group. The publicist was apparently very homophobic. Two, according to Hadju, Duke truly did launch himself and dedicate himself to the writing of the score while Billy spent most of his time staying out late, drinking, and catching up with old friends. Indeed, one of his former boyfriends, Aaron Bridgers, appears in the film as the pianist (Bridgers was in fact a pianist who moved to Paris in the 40s). Accounts of Billy's state during the production of Paris Blues vary. Some say that Billy was happy and enjoying his time in Paris. Others say that he was very depressed and drowning his sorrows. It should also be noted that by 1961, Billy was probably already becoming quite ill from cancer, though it would not be diagnosed for another couple of years.

So this is just a long way of explaining why Billy may not have contributed much to this score after all -- though his name should have still appeared in the credits for the work he did do.

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