April showers are behind us, according to the famous song. Keeping those flowers that bloom in May in mind, it’s time to play a musical bouquet—brought to us by instrumental and vocal jazz artists.
You might think there would be an almost endless list of jazz tunes about flowers, but the list is a fairly short one—thought there are lots of tunes about the spring season. Duke Ellington’s alter ego and co-composer, Billy Strayhorn, nicknamed “Sweetpea,” wrote some lovely compositions that fit this theme.
Join me for a celebration of Strayhorn and a floral musical extravaganza.
”Black Music Sunday” is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 200 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
Ella Fitzgerald does great justice to the late great Strayhorn’s tune “A Flower is A Lovesome Thing.” whose lyrics mention daffodils, roses, azaleas, and gardenias, in this recording from October 1965.
In 2021, jazz writer Mike Zirpolo at Swing & Beyond wrote an in-depth portrait of Strayhorn, who had an “affinity for all things French.”
The story: There was something about French culture that fascinated Billy Strayhorn all his life. He wrote these words in the 1930s: “Life is lonely again, …A week in Paris will ease the bite of it, All I care is to smile in spite of it.” They became a part of Strayhorn’s lyric to his haunting song “Lush Life.” Strayhorn’s companion Aaron Bridgers, who lived in Paris for many years, made this statement about Strayhorn’s affinity for all things French. “From his high school days, Billy was a Francophile. He was fluent in the language and was thrilled with every trip he could make. (In Paris) nobody cared who you were or what you were. There was no judgment. That’s one reason why Billy and I loved it here.”
[…]The music: The leading expert on Strayhorn’s music, Walter van de Leur, has summarized the history of Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing.” “Within months of joining Duke Ellington in New York in the winter of 1939, Strayhorn had written two ballads for Johnny Hodges, the Ellington orchestra’s star alto saxophonist: ‘Passion Flower,’ and ‘A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing.’ While there is evidence that ‘A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing’ made it into the band book as early as February of 1941, it wasn’t until 1946 that the Johnny Hodges All-Stars waxed the piece for Capitol Transcriptions. There is a kinship between ‘Passion Flower’ and ‘A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing’ that exceeds their botanic titles. Both pieces are built on similar musical ideas, such as very little harmonic movement, a technique found in other (Strayhorn) pieces as well. Throughout ‘A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing,’ Strayhorn maintains a subdued and minor mood. As always, his writing is detailed and effectively expressive of the emotional content of this introspective composition.”
Here’s Strayhorn playing the aforementioned “Passion Flower,” released in 1963. He was not the first to record it: That honor went to Ellington band member and saxophonist Johnny Hodges a full two decades before Strayhorn would release his version.
There have been numerous covers since “Passion Flower” was first released by Hodges in 1943. But when it comes to vocal versions featuring lyrics by Milt Raskin, I love Fitzgerald and the Duke’s take.
Let’s pause the music and learn a bit more about “Sweetpea,” courtesy of the Billy Strayhorn website.
The history of the family of William Thomas Strayhorn (his mother called him “Bill”) goes back over a hundred years in Hillsborough, North Carolina. One set of great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Craig, lived behind the present Farmer’s Exchange. A great grand-mother was the cook for Robert E. Lee. Billy, however, was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1915. His mother, Lillian Young Strayhorn, brought her children to Hillsborough often. Billy was attracted to the piano that his grandmother, Elizabeth Craig Strayhorn owned. He played it from the moment he was tall enough to reach the keys. Even in those early years, when he played, his family would gather to listen and sing.
In 1923 Billy entered the first grade in a little wooden school house, since destroyed. Soon after that, however, his mother moved her family to Pittsburgh to join Billy’s father, James Nathaniel Strayhorn. Mr. Strayhorn had gotten a job there as a gas-maker and wire-puller. Charlotte Catlin began to give Billy private piano lessons. He played the piano everyday, sometimes becoming so engrossed that he would be late for his job. He also played in the high school band.
His father enrolled him in the Pittsburgh Musical Institute where he studied classical music. He had more classical training than most jazz musicians of his time.
Queer Portraits in History adds details about Strayhorn’s life that he never concealed. We’ll pick up the story after a crucial audition in Pittsburgh.
Ellington was so impressed by what Strayhorn played for him that he invited him to come to New York City, even though there were no official open positions in the band. Strayhorn took him up on the offer. There he met his first partner, fellow black musician Aaron Bridgers. They lived together from 1939 until when Bridgers moved to Paris in 1947. Throughout his life, Strayhorn was surprisingly open about being gay. In 1941, he met the singer Lena Horne because Ellington, who was romantically interested at the time, thought Strayhorn would be a “safe” choice to show her around. Lena Horne ended up falling in love anyway, and said she would have married Strayhorn had he been straight. He did become her mentor, vocal coach, and close friend.
In 1994, Mary Pettis Sanford wrote more about Sweetpea (or Swee’pea), his enduring nickname, for the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.
Nicknamed “Willie” and “Swee’pea” (for the baby in the cartoon strip Popeye because of Strayhorn’s small five-foot-three-inch stature), he is credited by Lena Horne, his close friend, with contributing greatly to her musical education, particularly in regard to classical music, during their many hours together. He cited as his reasons for never marrying both his frenetic activities as a jazz musician traveling to concerts, dances, theaters, clubs, and recording studios on three continents, and his impulsive mode of life, incompatible with domestic order. Coteries of admirers formed in Paris, Helsinki, Stockholm, and London. Influenced by Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Rimsky-Korsakov, his work was more celebrated in Europe, where jazz was taken seriously as an art form, than in America. His music has been called “sheer and shimmering in quality,” “gentle, reflective melodies in minor moods” and “pastel colors.”
Yet another floral offering from Strayhorn was “Lotus Blossom” which, according to Songfacts, went through a number of name changes before Strayhorn registered the song title in 1959.
Songfacts adds:
Duke Ellington liked the song so much that it eventually became the sign-off song at the end of each of his band’s performance. It is his recording of “Lotus Blossom” that may be the best of the many covers that exist. He said that it was the song that Strayhorn liked to hear him play the most. After Strayhorn died from cancer of the esophagus on May 31, 1967, Ellington and some of the band went into the recording studio in August to make a tribute album of some of Strayhorn’s lesser-known songs. When the session for the album And His Mother Called Him Bill was over, Ellington went back to the piano. As he sat there alone, he began to play “Lotus Blossom.” The recording equipment was still on as he played. Harry Carney unpacked his baritone sax and Aaron Bell took out his bass and the two men sat in with Ellington on the second chorus. It became the last track of the album and many jazz critics viewed this rendition of “Lotus Blossom” as Ellington’s final eulogy to his friend. Fittingly, when Ellington died in 1974, Alec Wyton reworked the song for the organ and he played it at Ellington’s funeral at St. John the Divine in New York.
Give that final rendition a listen.
Yet another floral tune is the exquisite “Single Petal of a Rose,” written for Queen Elizabeth II. As Christopher Carroll wrote for the “Secret Music” series at Lapham’s Quarterly:
Secret Music: On Duke Ellington’s The Queen’s Suite
The song, “The Single Petal of a Rose,” was among the most beautiful and personal melodies Ellington ever wrote. It was the centerpiece of The Queen’s Suite, six songs he and his collaborator Billy Strayhorn composed for Queen Elizabeth II in 1958. Five of the six songs represent different musical landscapes—a grove full of fireflies, or a mockingbird singing at sunset—seen by Ellington in his travels around the world. Several of these, he wrote in his autobiography, represented some of the most moving moments of his life. It is a remarkable artistic achievement, even by the standards of such a prolific composer. But after recording it, he gave to the queen what he claimed was the only copy, refusing to release the album in his lifetime.
Have a listen:
This wonderfully poignant presentation of the tune was recorded by the Classical Theatre of Harlem in 2022:
Speaking of my favorite flower OI’m a longtime rose grower), let’s finish our May bouquet with two versions of folk and blues songwriter-musician Tim Hardin’s “Misty Roses.” The first is an instrumental by The Modern Jazz Quartet, recorded in 1972.
I love Astrud Gilberto’s 1966 bossa nova samba vocal cover.
I hope you are enjoying May blooms today!
Join me in the comments for more, and please share any floral favorites not covered here!
