| "Lush Life" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Written | 1933–1936 |
| Published | 1949 by Tempo Music |
| Released | 1948 (1948) |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Songwriter(s) | Billy Strayhorn |
"Lush Life" is a jazz standard that was written by Billy Strayhorn from 1933 to 1936. It was performed publicly for the first time by Strayhorn and vocalist Kay Davis with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on November 13, 1948.[1]
The lyric describes the author's weariness of the night life after a failed romance, wasting time with "jazz and cocktails" at "come-what-may places" and in the company of girls with "sad and sullen gray faces/with distingué traces". Strayhorn was a teenager when he wrote most of the song, which was to become his signature composition (along with "Take the 'A' Train").
The song was written in the key of D-flat major.[1] The melody is over relatively complex chord changes, compared with many jazz standards, with chromatic movement and modulations that evoke a dreamlike state and the dissolute spirit characteristic of the "lush life." The song's verse is 32 bars long, and its chorus is 24 bars. Unlike most other jazz standards with a verse and a chorus, "Lush Life" is never performed without the verse because it is completely integral to the composition. Jazz critic Ted Gioia calls this standard "an art song, not a pop tune."[1]
During a 1949 interview, Strayhorn spoke of the song’s genesis: “’Lush Life’ wasn’t the first tune of mine Duke [Ellington] heard. In fact, he didn’t hear it until just a little while ago. I wrote it in 1936 while I was clerking at the Pennfield drugstore on the corner of Washington and Penn in Pittsburgh ….I was writing a song a day then, and I’ve forgotten many of them myself ….One night I remembered it and played it for Duke ….I called it 'Life is Lonely,’ but when anyone wanted me to play it they’d ask for ‘that thing about lush life’.”[2]
Nat King Cole recorded "Lush Life" in 1949, while trumpeter Harry James recorded it four times. In the 1950s, it was recorded by jazz vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, and Chris Connor. John Coltrane recorded it twice. The first was a 14-minute version recorded in 1958 as the title track of an album for Prestige with trumpeter Donald Byrd. The other was on John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, with vocalist Johnny Hartman, recorded in 1963. Strayhorn recorded it in 1961 with wordless vocals by the Paris Blue Notes for his album The Peaceful Side. Kurt Elling recorded a version for his album Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Frank Sinatra attempted to record a version of it for his 1958 Only the Lonely album but never finished a complete version. The unfinished takes of Sinatra singing ‘Lush Life’ were eventually officially released on the 60th anniversary rerelease of the album. [1]
Linda Ronstadt's version won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) (1986).
