our trip to memphis and new orleans over the past couple of weeks was inspiring due all the great music we partook of.. new orleans is an amazing place that musicians need to visit at least once in their life, hopefully sooner then later... while on this trip i managed to finish reading a book on billy strayhorn called lush life by david hajdu... it was a real treat to read this book and find out more then i ever knew about strayhorn.. while in new orleans we saw delfaeyo marsalis orchestra and i bought a copy of his latest cd 'sweet thunder' which is based on the music attributed to ellington under his recording 'such sweet thunder'.. in the book hajdu discusses strayhorns central involvement in the composition of such sweet thunder, although it seems given strayhorns role in the ellington empire, composition credits for material he was responsible for were never made clear to the general public... read the book for a better view on all of this and the life of billy strayhorn..