Yale Jazz Ensemble: The Nutcracker Swings!

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

7:30 PM

Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

470 College Street, New Haven

Free Admission

The Yale Jazz Ensemble, directed by Thomas C. Duffy, will present a seasonal concert featuring Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn’s arrangement of Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, on Wednesday, December 3, 2014, at 7:30 pm in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall (470 College Street, New Haven). Admission is free of charge. Call 203-432-4111 for more information.

One of the most popular orchestral works ever created for ballet, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker recounts the story of Clara, a young girl, who dreams that the nutcracker she received as a Christmas gift has turned into a handsome prince. Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Nutcracker Suite is a reinvention of the original, a “jazz “retelling” of the holiday classic in which Ellington has scored the Suite (drawn from the full ballet) for standard big band and renamed the movements to reflect his American “take” on the Russian original:

· Overture

· Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Mirlitons, or Reed-Pipes)

· Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)

· Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)

· Entr’acte

· The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)

· Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)

· Danse of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)

· Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dances)

CONTACT: Stephanie Hubbard – 203-432-4111 or Stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu