One of the deepest songbooks in jazz has changed hands. On October 19, 2026, New York independent music company Reservoir Media announced it has acquired the publishing catalog of the late jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, whose works include “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Lush Life,” “Chelsea Bridge” and “Satin Doll.” Reservoir will also participate in Strayhorn's name, image and likeness rights.
A 12-year relationship becomes a purchase
The deal builds on a relationship Reservoir has had with the Strayhorn estate, Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc., since 2014, including support for the Strayhorn Centennial celebration in 2015, according to the company's announcement. Financial terms were not included in the announcement or in Music Week's report.
“The responsibility for managing a legacy is a serious and daunting undertaking,” the Strayhorn estate said. “We are so pleased to have partnered with the Reservoir team for the past 12 years. Our collaboration has allowed us to expand Strayhorn's legacy with the help of sensitive partners who valued our opinions, our ideas and our feelings.”
Suzy Arrabito, Reservoir's vice president of marketing and communications, called Strayhorn “a defining voice in American music” and said: “We are proud to be the stewards of his remarkable catalog and remain committed to championing his timeless work, ensuring his music continues to be heard, celebrated, and discovered by audiences for many years to come.”
Who Strayhorn was
Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1915, Strayhorn was a composer, pianist and arranger best known for a three-decade collaboration with Duke Ellington that helped define Ellington's sound. He died in 1967. Outside music, he lived as an openly gay man and was a committed civil rights advocate who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin, the announcement notes.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992. In October 2026 he was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame; he spent childhood summers with his mother's family in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Still in heavy rotation
His songs keep finding new performers. Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett's Cheek to Cheek, which won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2015, included a version of “Lush Life”; Reservoir says the album topped the Billboard 200 and held No. 1 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart for 24 weeks. In 2023, the Strayhorn biographical musical Something To Live For debuted at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Sugar Hill: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker premiered in Chicago. And on September 30, 2026, Brian Stokes Mitchell sang “Take the ‘A’ Train” in a medley with Sondheim's “Another Hundred People” at Gustavo Dudamel's inaugural gala as music director of the New York Philharmonic, with Dudamel conducting.
Reservoir, which is publicly traded on Nasdaq, has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Toronto, London, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai and Cairo, and also runs recorded music through Chrysalis Records, Tommy Boy Music and Reservoir Recordings. The likeness piece is the detail to watch: it gives the company a say in how Strayhorn's name and image are used, not just his compositions.