Tonight on PBS' series Independent Lens, the legacy of gay African-American jazz great Billy Strayhorn is examined in Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life. The feature-length documentary, which was written, directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning Robert Levi (Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo), uses interviews, performances and archival footage to illuminate the life and work of the musician, who was so gifted he could, as they say in jazz, “hear around the corner.”

Best known for his longtime musical partnership with Duke Ellington, Lush Life reveals that Strayhorn played a much more significant role in many of Ellington's famous works than was previously known.

On the Independent Lens website, Levi states: “I set out to build a living, flexible, vibrant, and emotionally charged film about a gentle soul and timeless spirit who left us few clues about his inner life. I wanted the world to experience both the beauty and the pain he lived through.”

Strayhorn was born in 1915 in Dayton, Ohio, and spent much of his youth in the poorest section of Pittsburgh before moving to Harlem, N.Y. As a child, he displayed an early interest in art and culture and even composed a high school musical. His mother recognized her gifted son's talents and protected him from his abusive, alcoholic father while nurturing his artistic development.

Lush Life discloses how Strayhorn, even as a closeted teen in the 1920s, was aware of his sexual identity — and acted on it. Though homosexuality was verboten at the time, Strayhorn managed to have a secret boyfriend while he was living in Pittsburgh. He died of cancer at the early age of 51 in the arms of his lover, Bill Groves.

While still a teenager, Strayhorn composed the music and lyrics to what would become his most famous song, “Lush Life.” This classic has become a standard in every serious jazz singer's repertory. Strayhorn's trademark style of breezy yet sophisticated lyrics in which the singer wistfully reminisces on youth is already evident here:

I used to visit all the very gay places

Those come-what-may places

Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life

To get the feel of life

From jazz and cocktails

Until recently, Strayhorn has been mainly known as jazz icon Duke Ellington's longtime collaborator, but Lush Life contains surprising revelations about who really wrote what in the Ellington-Strayhorn musical partnership.

Strayhorn co-wrote Ellington's biggest hit, “Satin Doll,” a piece that until now has been credited solely to Ellington. Strayhorn also co-wrote with Ellington the film score to Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder. Strayhorn, and not Ellington, arranged Ellington's first commercial hit, “Flamingo.” Strayhorn, and not Ellington, composed Ellington's signature song and greatest moneymaker, “Take the A-Train.”

Lush Life explores why Strayhorn was willing to remain largely anonymous about his 30-year musical partnership with the larger-than-life, heterosexual Ellington. At the time, it was not uncommon for famous bandleaders to take credit for the work of others, and having a big name on a music score helped sell it, benefiting everyone involved. Ellington knew that Strayhorn was gay, but that does not seem to have mattered to him; from Ellington's point of view, their relationship was purely musical, and the film offers no evidence that Ellington manipulated Strayhorn because Strayhorn was gay.

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