Invisibility is a concept that can't be qualified - either something is visible or it isn't. Yet Billy Strayhorn, who, working alongside his fellow composer-orchestrator-pianist Duke Ellington, was partly responsible for the single most formidable body of work in all of American music, was doubly invisible. Ralph Ellison has depicted the afro-american as "The Invisible Man;" and likewise, during Strayhorn's lifetime, as throughout much of history, homosexuality has been synonomous with anonymity.
As David Hajdu shows in Lush Life, the first biography of Strayhorn (1915-1967), the fact of his being both black and gay forced Strayhorn to hide his light under his partner's bushel. Ellington played his role as a black intellectual celebrity as adroitly as he did his piano, and Strayhorn's inability to share the spotlight with him worked to Ellington's advantage. Certainly the remarkably-gifted Strayhorn had more than enough talent to have had a career apart from Ellington, either as a composer-bandleader, like the Duke himself, or writing musical comedy. But for Strayhorn to have stepped forward into the public eye, he would have had to cover up who he was. It was unfathomable that anyone could be openly gay, many celebrities, like Cole Porter, hid their sexuality under the ruse of a wife for a "beard." Coming out of the shadows would have entailed going into the closet, which would have been untenable to Strayhorn. Ellington was therefore blessed with a silent partner who could both make him shine and relieve him of part of the workload, yet take none of the bows.