In the process, it fleshes out much of the content Hajdu writes about in The Ten-Cent Plague.

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Their misunderstood era and countless others are fertile ground for Hajdu.

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To know Strayhorn's full story, check out the new television documentary Lush Life, airing as part of PBS's Independent Lens series, or read David Hajdu's biography of the same name.

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Yet Eckstine's musical tragedy, of being too hot, is a uniting theme of Hajdu's work, which in its best moments explores the edges of musical and cultural classifications and formally defined eras.

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Full disclosure: Hajdu is a friend of mine.

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Hajdu, the music critic for The New Republic and a professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, mainly focuses on the latter implications of his title: how a double-page photo in Time magazine sabotaged Eckstine's career.

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