http://www.billystrayhorn.com/biography.htm
Billy Strayhorn, jazz composer. Worked a great deal with Duke Ellington. If you know "Take the A Train," you know Billy Strayhorn. He composed "Take the A Train" based on the lyrical quality of Duke Ellington's voice on the telephone, as Ellington gave him directions to his house in Harlem.
I am a huge, huge jazz fan...and a major fan of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington.
A sidenote: Ellington was heterosexual. In an interview I saw with his daughter, she acknowledged the close friendship between her father and Strayhorn, saying they were as close as two men could be and not actually be lovers.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY"]YouTube- Duke Ellington, "Take the A Train"[/nomedia]