TONIGHT at Harlem Stage: ‘Billy & Aaron’

You may already know filmmaker and screenwriter Rodney Evans as a favorite of NewFest, having won our 2008 NewDraft script competition for his full-length feature Day Dream, now in development. It’s a sure bet you’ll remember Rodney, too, if you were present for the staged reading of a scene from Day Dream that year… and for the standing ovation it received from the thrilled NewFest crowd.

Rodney Evans

Two years later, an even wider audience will have a chance to experience Evans’ work with his short film Billy and Aaron, developed in conjunction with Day Dream. It’s a fly-on-the-wall portrayal of jazz legend Billy Strayhorn (played by real life singer-musician Brandon Delagraentiss) and his lover Aaron Bridgers (Ignaro Petronillia) imagined during the time of a crossroads in their romance. Shot in an art deco theater and cafe – one that bears an uncanny resemblance to famous Harlem jazz venue Lenox Lounge – Evans created the piece while attending the prestigious director’s coaching program at Amsterdam’s Binger Filmlab. New York-based musician and composer Aaron Beall worked behind the scenes for Evans to recreate the instrumental version of ‘Lush Life,’ a 1938 Strayhorn standard used in the short.

I spoke briefly with Rodney to learn more about the openly gay Strayhorn, and about the musician’s collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington.

What brought you to Billy and Aaron’s story in the first place?

I came to know Billy Strayhorn through his music. I had heard ‘Lush Life’ around ten or 15 years ago, and it was one of those songs that really moved me, and that I thought was beautiful. I also read David Hajdu’s biography about him (Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, 1996) and I found I could relate to a lot of his experiences. I thought it was a shame that so few people knew anything about him, and so that led me into further research into him, getting deeper into his music, studying his life, eventually deciding to write an original screenplay about him.

His connection to the Harlem Renaissance of the Jazz Age and to the gay demimonde of the time is a critical element to his story.

Here’s the way it was. Billy was a younger musician who was in awe of, and went out of his way to meet, the great and legendary Duke Ellington. It’s The Duke who gave him his first big break, hiring him as an arranger and an accompanist with the band, and that allowed Billy a lot of freedom as a gay man he wouldn’t have had otherwise. Because his finances were, well, taken care of, he was allowed to live this openly gay lifestyle, and not have to worry about the financial repercussions of coming out. I think in exchange, he wasn’t given credit at the time for a lot of songs he wrote for Duke. It was probably part of a tacit agreement he made with the big man himself: that, in order to live this open lifestyle on one hand, he would more or less live in the shadows while the Duke took all the bows.

Your film re-imagines a conversation Billy had with Aaron, when he decides he will not accompany his then-lover on a move to Paris. Are you saying this decision was largely driven by career and financial concerns?

I don’t think we’ll ever really know, as both men have both passed on. (My movie is a) fictional portrayal of their relationship, but it is based in facts. I did the hard research into his life to try and figure out what went into that and into other tough decisions he made, or was forced to make, in his career. You know, whether to step up and fight for the kind of credit he deserved as an artist, or, to live an openly gay lifestyle, write music he didn’t really get credit for, and more or less live in the shadows of the great Duke Ellington. He chose the latter, and had difficult life because of it.

It had so many repercussions: He was an alcoholic for decades, which shows how he was in many ways haunted by his life’s decisions. It’s difficult that in that kind of climate – of being a black musician in the 40s or 50s – there weren’t a lot of financial resources for artists; he knew he was fortunate just to have the steady paying gig that he did.

In a way, your film is a comment on what we now call the ‘down low,’ and the consequences of publicly coming out.

Yes, but this work is about my trying to delve into Billy’s experience, and trying to imagine it as fully as possible, and to do justice to it, first and foremost. That being said, I think the reason Billy’s story resonated with me, simply, are the ways that I can relate to his experience, and some of the similarities to things I’ve seen in my life, as a contemporary black gay artist. I think the connection between today’s black gay lifestyle and Billy Strayhorn’s experiences are very real. That made me want to delve deeper into what was going on in his life, and to depict it in Billy and Aaron.

Evans Forlidas

From our film guide: Openly gay composer Bily Strayhorn deals with his life. Plays in Boys Will Be Boys shorts program. USA, 2009, 10 min. Q&A with filmmaker; reception to follow. Plays with Children of God, tonight at Harlem Stage, 7:30pm.