Nutcracker Suite (Columbia)
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
Released in 1996
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9dVWT1c5OYc&list=OLAK5uy_nqidZBJm0LduhhrU6qCN4RNKQkPlRbI_A
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6QHkNHDNvVkR3G8CDvF1Ug?si=puHfZUdLQzmHBH0uxiRvKQ
About:
Duke Ellington
and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky met in Las Vegas while Duke’s band was setting
attendance records at the Riviera Hotel. For the first time in Ellington
history, Duke had decided to devote an entire album to arrangements of another
composer’s works instead of his own, and Tchaikovsky was the natural choice.
Because the suite is a favorite form for Ellington composition, the Nutcracker
was the obvious Tchaikovsky work to choose.
Duke and Billy Strayhorn needed some reassurance that nobody, including the
famous Russian composer, would mind if the Suite was translated into the
Ellington style, but once these fears were banished, they attacked the
“Sugar-Plum Fairy” and the “Waltz of the Flowers” as if they were no more
sacred than “Perdido.”
Duke’s band had undergone some changes during his Las Vegas stand, and as he arrived
in Los Angeles to begin the recording, the trombone section included two
Ellington alumni, Lawrence Brown and Juan Tizol, back for postgraduate courses.
The rhythm section also included Sam Woodyard, back with the band after a
year’s absence, and Aaron Bell, one of the fine bass players in jazz. Eddie
Mullins was new in the trumpet section, as was Meringuito, and Willie Cook had
returned to the band. The sax section and, of course, the piano player, were
unchanged.
“Overture” — The Suite begins, naturally enough, with an overture based on the first of many famous themes Duke and Billy Strayhorn arranged for this album. Soloists are Paul Gonzalves, “Booty” Wood on trombone con plunger, and Ray Nance, playing a beautiful solo on open horn. The ensemble last chorus gives a first taste of the kind of driving band sound that characterizes the Ellington version of The Nutcracker.
“Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)” — You will by now have noticed that titles of the various dances have undergone an Ellingtonian change. Duke and Billy devoted many hours to retitling, mainly because Duke, having adapted the Suite to his style, felt the titles were also in need of “reorchestrating.” (The full title for this piece, for instance, is “Caliopatootie toot toot tootie Toot”, but none of us could spell it, so we shortened it.) It features reed duets by Jimmy Hamilton and Russell Procope and by Paul Gonzalves and Harry Carney, a toy pipe foursome if ever there was one.
“Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)” — This is one of the fine examples of the full Ellington band turning a four-sided march theme into a great jazz performance. After the ensemble, Ray Nance and Jimmy Hamilton take solos, and there is a piano solo, one of the few in this Suite. Duke devoted so much time to the band during this recording he rarely had time to sit at the piano. The ensemble following the piano interlude features a five-octave sax figure from the bottom of Harry Carney’s baritone to the top of Jimmy Hamilton’s clarinet, and, the March ends with Paul Gonzalves’ solo to an ending that even Tchaikovsky could hear.
“Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)” — This famous delicacy opens with a drum figure leading to Harry and Paul on baritone and tenor saxes. Paul continues the melody while the Ellington pep section, made up of Ray Nance and Willie Cook, trumpets, and Booty Wood, trombone, wail the background. The melody returns to Paul and Harry again and fades, and the Sugar Plum Fairy, now a West Indian beauty, disappears into the cane fields.
“Entr’acte” — The entr’acte returns to the overture in a freer form and introduces Johnny Hodges, while Harry Carney and Paul Gonzalves join in the build-up. Lawrence Brown then takes over on muted trombone a wonderfully welcome sound. Jimmy Hamilton’s clarinet and Lawrence’s trombone complete the intermission music.
“Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)” — This is a duet by Jimmy Hamilton and Paul Gonzalves with the assistance of drums and bass and a touch of trombones. It is played straight, although not straight-faced, and after another piano interlude, the two soloists reverse the music and play each other’s solos for the last chorus. Naturally, the pianist has the last word.
“Danse of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)” — What-ever Floreadores are, they are not waltz lovers, and this one-time waltz now jumps. Booty has the opening plunger statement. Ray Nance plays the first plunger trumpet solo, following by Hamilton and then Nance again. Lawrence Brown sails into his solo, and the danse concludes with Booty and Britt Woodman.
“Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance)” — Russell Procope has been practicing on a bamboo whistle for months for his debut on records. This is it, and he has made the most of it. Juan Tizol, a tambourine expert, sets the rhythmic color with Sam Woodyard and Aaron Bell, and then Harry Carney on bass clarinet and Jimmy Hamilton on the regular kind, play the Arabian Dance. Willie Cook plays with the reed section on this number, and as the Moorish flavor turns into a swinging beat, Johnny Hodges plays. The dance returns to the original for the ending, and Tizol has the last shake.
Duke Ellington’s first brush with the classics is successfully completed. It is a tribute, I think, to Duke and Billy and to Tchaikovsky. The Ellington forces have proved once again that in any setting, this great band and its strong personality pervade all the music it plays. But that Tchaikovsky has also triumphed is an indication of the perennial strength of his music. As Duke commented, “That cat was it.”
Irving Townsend
Track Listing:
1. Overture 3:22
2. Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes) 2:30
3. Peanut Brittle Brigade (March) 4:37
4. Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy) 3:05
5. Entr’acte 1:53
6. Volga Vouty (Russian Dance) 2:52
7. Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance) 2:50
8. Danse of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers) 4:04
9. Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance) 5:44
Composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and adapted by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
Personnel:
Duke Ellington And His Orchestra
Duke Ellington: piano
Trumpet: Willie Cook, Fats Ford, Ray Nance, Clark Terry
Trombone: Lawrence Brown, Booty Wood, Britt Woodman, Juan Tizol (valve)
Saxophones: Jimmy Hamilton (tenor, clarinet), Johnny Hodges (alto), Russell Procope (alto), Paul Gonzalves (tenor), Harry Carney (baritone, bass clarinet)
Bass: Aaron Bell
Drums: Sam Woodyard
Recorded on May 26 (tracks 1 and 5), May 31 (track 2), June 3 (tracks 4 and 8), 21 (tracks 3 and 7) and 22 (tracks 6 and 9), 1960.
Producer: Irving Townsend
Cover Photography by Gordon Parks
Illustration: Seltzer
Review:
The swinging rhythms of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ”Nutcracker” Suite poured from the windows of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House one chilly evening recently, giving the quiet neighborhood an early taste of Christmas. The sounds originated in the building’s main rehearsal studio, where 20 dancers whirled across the floor, propelled by a hard-driving piano and an insistent drum.
As the choreographer Donald Byrd watched intently from the sidelines, the dancers went from a pelvis-twisting jitterbug into elegant ballroom combinations. A couple emerged from the ensemble to do a complex, balletic pas de deux. Donald Byrd/The Group was rehearsing ”The Harlem Nutcracker,” which will have its New York premiere as part of the Next Wave Festival at the academy, running from Wednesday through Sunday. The dancers will be accompanied by a 15-piece orchestra and the Lafayette Inspirational Ensemble, a Brooklyn gospel choir.
Mr. Byrd has changed the classic E. T. A. Hoffmann story of a young European girl’s magical Christmas Eve into a rollicking and poignant portrait of a contemporary black American family. Within this context, he pays homage to the original ballet, choreographed by Lev Ivanov in 1892, and to George Balanchine’s popular revision, a seasonal staple of the New York City Ballet since its premiere in 1954.
Mr. Byrd, 47, has often choreographed dances with social themes for Donald Byrd/The Works, the company he established in 1976. His main reason for creating ”The Harlem Nutcracker,” he says, was to show the warmth and resilience of black Americans. ”Only very recently have violence and drugs plagued our community,” he said. ”We have a wonderful tradition of the generations supporting one another, which I wanted to dramatize. But my themes are universal.”
”The Harlem Nutcracker” begins with a Christmas Eve celebration at the Harlem mansion of Clara, a widowed grandmother. After the many guests leave, she is visited by the Angel of Death. Subsequently, her late husband, transformed into the Nutcracker Prince, appears and whisks her away on a journey to the past. On their first stop, they are royally entertained at their old 1930’s stomping ground, Club Sweets, a replication of the Cotton Club. After this joyous interlude, the Angel of Death returns and insists that the couple revisit less happy periods of their lives, episodes connected to the civil rights movement. In the morning, Clara returns to the present and her family. Her husband appears again, but this time in the guise of Death. She is prepared to die and peacefully accompanies him.
With its tender protagonists and its emphasis on family bonds, ”The Harlem Nutcracker” looks superficially like a drastic change of pace for Mr. Byrd, who in recent years dealt scathingly with racism in ”The Minstrel Show,” domestic violence in ”The Beast” and the battle of the sexes in ”Bristle.” But beneath the discord of many of his dances is a longing for intimacy and order, especially evident in ”Shards,” which was staged by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and ”Prodigal,” inspired by Balanchine’s ”Prodigal Son.”
In all of Mr. Byrd’s works, modern dance, jazz and classical ballet idioms are intricately combined. He adds funk in the hips and shoulders to big, clear movements, then accelerates the action with his distinctive quicksilver timing.
Mr. Byrd first explored the possibility of doing a new ”Nutcracker” in 1989, after reading a review of a performance of Ellington and Strayhorn’s 1964 adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s ”Nutcracker” Suite by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He called the conductor, David Berger, and suggested that they work together on a dance piece to the score. Mr. Byrd had collaborated on musical theater pieces before, most recently with the jazz drummer and composer Max Roach and the unorthodox director Peter Sellars. (He is also the choreographer for the production of ”Carmina Burana” that will have its premiere at the New York City Opera in March.)
It turned out that Mr. Berger, a leading Ellington authority and arranger, had taken the idea of such a ”Nutcracker” to Alvin Ailey when they worked together in the 1970’s. Ailey responded by saying that there were already too many ”Nutcrackers.” (Frederick Ashton, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, John Cranko, James Canfield and Mark Morris are just a few of the choreographers, in addition to Balanchine, who have redone the ballet.) Mr. Berger was pleased to discover that Mr. Byrd did not agree.
They began with the 30-minute score. ”Donald gave me a sketch of the story, and I looked for the music that best suited each of his scenes and characters,” explained Mr. Berger. Ellington’s playful titles worked perfectly with Mr. Byrd’s ideas for variations on the ”Nutcracker” dances: ”Peanut Butter Brigade” for the children’s march, ”Sugar Rum Cherry” for the Sugarplum Fairy’s solo and ”Arabesque Cookie” for the Arabian dance.
After presenting the piece as a work in progress about a year ago with Mr. Byrd’s 10-member company, accompanied by piano, bass and drums, they concluded that they needed 15 more dancers, a full orchestra and a longer score. Mr. Berger started composing more material, staying close to the Ellington sound and adding other elements from Tchaikovsky’s ”Nutcracker” Suite. ”I didn’t let myself be intimidated,” Mr. Berger explained. The score now runs 90 minutes, and includes elements of rap and hip-hop.
A bigger show required more elaborate staging and costumes. From modest beginnings, ”The Harlem Nutcracker” evolved into a $1 million production, a record for the small New York company, which had never before mounted a work for more than $20,000.
Mr. Byrd called on his longtime costume designer, Gabriel Berry, to create clothes that would enhance the piece’s glamorous atmosphere. She eventually came up with 200 costumes, producing everything from tail coats and biased gowns to filigreed dresses, zoot suits and witty tutus with champagne buckets hanging on the skirts. The lighting designer, Eduardo V. Sicangco, who recently did ”Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” on Broadway, explained his goal, ”I wanted the stage to be a riot of color, and found my inspiration for the mood and tone from the paintings of Romare Bearden.”
Because Mr. Byrd was emphasizing the stability of the black American family, he needed powerful performers in the central roles. He asked the choreographer and dancer Gus Solomons Jr., whose company he had performed with as a young man, to play the husband. ”Like a good theater director, Donald knows exactly how to get emotions out of performers,” said Mr. Solomons, who is now a full-time teacher at New York University. ”He demands that every movement be a manifestation of an emotional state or dramatic action. Because of his technique, acting has never been so easy for me. Without knocking anyone over the head with it, he created a believable character who exemplifies the strong and caring African-American patriarch.”
Eleanor McCoy brings to the part of Clara her experience as both a Broadway actress and a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. ”I feel a lot of the story pertains to my family,” said Ms. McCoy, who grew up in Harlem. ”I remember the good parties, the good food, the dancing and usually someone getting a little tipsy. But something else was always going on, and Donald captures it: we all nurtured one another and we knew death couldn’t separate us.”
BY THE END OF THE YEAR, ”The Harlem Nutcracker” will also have been performed in Tempe, Ariz., where it had its world premiere on Nov. 16; Fairfax, Va.; Ann Arbor, Mich., Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Mikki Shepard, the artistic director of 651: An Arts Center, a Brooklyn Academy of Music affiliate that is producing the work in New York with the Donald Byrd Dance Foundation, would like to see it get even more exposure.
”Donald wanted to make something his grandmother would be proud of,” she said, ”so he found out about her generation by visiting senior-citizen centers and holding workshops with older Harlem residents. His sensitivity gives him an incredible ability to speak to people through his dances. I haven’t seen anyone with that gift since Alvin Ailey.”
Valerie Gladstone (New York Times)