Author: Devra Hall Levy

I was working today on the list of people that I hope to interview for the Luther Henderson biography. It’s a diverse group of folks that includes singers and musicians, actors and actresses, choreographers and conductors, composers and arrangers, producers and directors, not to mention family, friends, and business associates. The variety among the females singers, alone — Barbra Streisand, Ruth Brown, Bea Arthur, Polly Bergan, Lena Horne, and Jessye Norman, to name just a few — attests to the ecclecticism and wide range of Luther’s talents.
Of the six ladies mentioned, I’ve met three: Ruth Brown is a friend, Lena Horne I encountered years ago during my days as a talent coordinator, and Bea Arthur attended the West Coast memorial for Luther in June of 2004. Last month I posted a description of the Canadian Brass’ appearance at the memorial. Here, then, is the excerpt about Bea Arthur and composer Billy Goldenberg:

Bea Arthur, accompanied by Billy Goldenberg, was on hand that Sunday to share some memories. As Billy got settled at the piano, Bea told us a story about her invitation to sing a song called It Amazes Me at an affair honoring Cy Coleman twenty-five years ago.

“I thought, ‘I know there’s going to be a lot of terrific talent honoring Cy,’ and I decided that rather than just slide in and go to rehearsal next day, I thought, ‘No. I’m going to go a day earlier and work with Luther and really kill the people.”

We had no idea how the story would end, but already we were laughing.

“So I did, and we worked; we worked all that day. Quite wonderful. And then the night of the event, which was, I remember, at Peacock Alley at the Waldorf – black tie, oh, I mean it was fabulous – a number of people got up and performed Cy’s stuff. And then Tony Bennett came and started singing and, of course, he leveled the place, just tore the place up to such a degree that – I don’t know if you remember this, Billy – that he had to do an encore. So Cy sat down at the piano and Tony sang…It Amazes Me. I never in my life … I was so devastated! So after that, we just went to the bar and got loaded.”

We, too, were ready to go to the bar and get loaded, but we quieted down as Bea, casually dressed in white pants, tunic top, and sandals, regal as ever, began to sing. Even without a microphone, her voice was strong and sure, her delivery, striking. She gave us two songs, It Amazes Me, and Don’t Miss the Chance to Sing, composed by Billy with lyrics by Tom Jones. I didn’t learn until later that while I’ve been at home watching twenty-year-old reruns of The Golden Girls, Bea has been on the road with her one-woman musical show And Then There’s Bea, later renamed Bea Arthur On Broadway.

Billy Goldenberg had a story too. It was 1964, Billy was in his twenties, and had been hired to do the rehearsal piano and dance music for a show called High Spirits with Tammy Grimes and Beatrice Lillie, directed by Noel Coward. Hugh Martin, the show’s composer, asked Billy if he’d like to write the overture. Billy was ecstatic, and petrified. It was Luther, a man had had never met before, who came to his rescue by helping him to orchestrate the overture.

“Luther came in and he looked at this sketch and he said, ‘This is really interesting.’ ‘Is it really, Luther? You’re the best. If you can do it, make it sound good.’ I said, ‘You know, I’ve done my best here, but I can’t really orchestrate.’ He said, ‘What do you mean, you can’t orchestrate?’ He said, ‘You’ve already done it here.’ He said, ‘I’ll add a few things and see if you like it.’ I said, ‘See if I like it!’ I said, ‘What does that matter?’ I said, ‘You do your genius thing,’ you know. Anyway, he did it, and well, everybody, the whole cast, they all stood up and clapped after the first orchestra rehearsal. And Luther came over to me and he said, ‘Next time you’re going to do it.’ And I did. And from then on, I did all my own things: stage, and then television and movies, and all of it. But it was Luther who said to me, ‘You can do it.’ That’s all he had to say. For someone who was so important to me, really to say that, changed my life. It really did. I’ll always remember him for that. Thank you, Luther.”

Luther Henderson is not a household name, not even a B-list celebrity in the eyes of the general public. Finding a publisher for his biography has been a lengthy and difficult process, but I am pleased to say that I am in negotiations right now and hope to announce a signing very soon. Meanwhile, people are asking me “Luther who?”

Luther Henderson was a composer, arranger, conductor, musical director, orchestrator, and pianist. He was a proud black man who graduated from the Julliard School of Music in 1942, and in 1956, married a white woman, his second wife. He was Duke Ellington’s “classical arm,” orchestrating music for Beggar’s Holiday, Three Black Kings, and other symphonic works. Duke spoke highly of Luther, but seldom gave him the credit he was due. Luther was Lena Horne’s pianist and musical director. During his sixty-year career in music, he worked his magic on some of Broadway’s greatest musical hits, including Flower Drum Song, Funny Girl, No No Nanette, Purlie, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Jelly’s Last Jam, starring such performers as Barbra Streisand, Laine Kazan, Robert Guillaume, Savion Glover, Andre Deshields, Tonya Pinkins, and Gregory Hines. His music was heard on television programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Bell Telephone Hour, and specials for the pop stars of the day including Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Andy Williams, Victor Borge, and Polly Bergen.

Despite the success of these shows, on both stage and television, his contributions were never properly valued. What reason, or combination of reasons, led to this oversight? Certainly there were those who usurped credit, whether due to ego, carelessness, or resentment of Luther’s training and talent. Was he caught between two worlds – the elite classical world embodied in his Julliard training, and the world of jazz, his own heritage? Both worlds viewed him with suspicion; neither took him seriously. Was it due to the racial biases of the times? Or was it just the inevitable fate of a background man?

Those in the business understood his talent, but it is hard to communicate to an audience just what Luther really did. We value a composer above an arranger or orchestrator, thinking that one is more original and creative than the other. When music is described as ‘incidental,’ the word used for background music as opposed to featured songs in a show, we assume it is, well, incidental, not very important. Even ‘background’ conveys lack of importance. Most of Luther’s major projects were based on songs written by others, but the difference between a song in its original form and Luther’s orchestration based on that song is vast. Luther’s interpretation is every bit as creative as the original song. He tried to explain it in an interview for American Theatre magazine in 1997:

Sometimes I call it ‘translating’ the music, but it’s more like transporting the music. It’s going through me, and I’m enjoying it going through me, and I’m adding to it what happens when it passes through me. I don’t try to imitate Duke Ellington. I can’t copy Jelly Roll Morton. I can’t be Fats Waller. But I can express what Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, and Duke Ellington mean to me. I can be the conduit.

Luther lived his life largely in the shadows, yet he never saw it that way. He was an affable man who appeared to view his experiences through proverbial rose-colored glasses, and for the most part, that is truly how he saw things. He lived as though he had plenty of money, but he was poorly compensated and he never liked to ask for proper recompense. He believed his work was important, but he said he enjoyed it so much, that it didn’t seem right to be paid. He thought everyone loved him – and most people did, but some didn’t. Growing up black in America, embracing both jazz and classical music – one, an American art form that has yet to be fully appreciated, and the other, a field not truly open to blacks at that time – was not a path to fame and fortune. But with a love of music, a prodigious talent, and an optimistic outlook, that is the life he chose. It was a life that required extreme dedication and concentration, sometimes to the detriment of family relations and his role as husband and father.