Lush Life (Billy Strayhorn) by ECC Studio Jazz Band (6-2-25)

Here is an excerpt from the concert of the El Camino College Studio Jazz Band performing Lush Life by Billy Strayhorn. This is the first variant in full 4k, I will be remaking a 2k version of it soon!

"Lush Life" is a jazz standard composed by Billy Strayhorn between 1933 and 1936, written in the key of D-flat major. The song was first performed publicly by Strayhorn and vocalist Kay Davis with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on November 13, 1948. Jazz critic Ted Gioia describes it as one of the most sophisticated jazz ballads, praising its intricate harmonic palette, elaborate structure, and world-weary lyrics. The lyrics reflect the author’s weariness of nightlife following a failed romance, with imagery of "jazz and cocktails" at "come-what-may places" and companions with "sad and sullen gray faces/ with distingué traces". Strayhorn, who was a teenager when he wrote most of the song, considered it a masterpiece of fatalistic sophistication that belies his youth.
The song's verse is 32 bars long and its chorus is 24 bars, with the verse being an integral part of the composition—unlike most jazz standards, "Lush Life" is never performed without the verse. The melody features complex chord changes, chromatic movement, and modulations that evoke a dreamlike state and the dissolute spirit of the "lush life". Strayhorn originally titled the song "Life is Lonely," but it became known as "Lush Life" after others began requesting it by that name.

The song has been widely recorded by numerous artists across decades. Nat King Cole recorded it in 1949, and trumpeter Harry James recorded it four times. In the 1950s, jazz vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, and Chris Connor recorded it, while John Coltrane recorded two versions—one in 1958 with Donald Byrd and another in 1963 with Johnny Hartman, which Gioia notes cast a long shadow over later performances. Strayhorn himself recorded it in 1961 with wordless vocals by the Paris Blue Notes for his album The Peaceful Side. Frank Sinatra attempted to record a version for his 1958 Only the Lonely album but never completed it; the unfinished takes were released on the 60th anniversary rerelease of the album.

Notable recordings include Linda Ronstadt’s version, which won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1986 , and Kurt Elling’s tribute version on Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (2009). Other artists who have recorded the song include Joe Pass, McCoy Tyner, Natalie Cole, Queen Latifah, and Lady Gaga on her Cheek to Cheek album (2014).

Enjoy
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The event was directed by David Sills of "The David Sills Quartet" and "The Acoustic Jazz Quartet." He has toured throughout the US, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, and France. You can hear him on David Benoit's "Conversations."
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Filmed at El Camino College in Torrance, CA
Equipment:
Lumix GH5
Lumix GH5s
Lumix GX85/80
Canon R700
Lumix ZS100 (towards the end, when my faulty GH5 messed up...)
Zoom H1n (Room mic)
Tascam DR-70D (connecting to mixer)
Lenses:
12-60mm Leica Lumix
35-100mm Lumix
100-300mm Lumix
Software: Shotcut
Audacity
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