Queer Arrangements

Winner of the 2024 Philip Brett Award, sponsored by the LGBTQ Study Group of the American Musicological Society (AMS) The legacy of Black queer composer, arranger, and pianist Billy Strayhorn (1915–1967) hovers at the edge of canonical jazz narratives. Queer Arrangements explores the ways in which Strayhorn's identity as an openly gay Black jazz musician shaped his career, including the creative roles he could assume and the dynamics between himself and his collaborators, most famously