The Nutcracker Suite

by Duke Ellington

The Nutcracker Suite cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: September 1960
  • Label: Columbia
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 58:56
  • Community rating: 4.15/5 from 5 ratings

Artists on this release: Johnny Hodges, Clark Terry, Jimmy Hamilton, Paul Gonsalves, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, Harry Carney, Mercer Ellington, Russell Procope, Steve Little, Lawrence Brown, Buster Cooper, Herbie Jones, Sam Woodyard, Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Aaron Bell, John Sanders, Chuck Connors, Jeff Castleman

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Billy Strayhorn and the bandleader collaboratively rearranged Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's classical ballet into a definitive Third Stream manifesto. The highly syncopated orchestrations famously translated the 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' into the swaggering, brass-heavy 'Sugar Rum Cherry'.

Genres

Descriptors: acoustic, instrumental, suite, christmas

Tracklist

  1. Overture (3:22)
  2. Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes) (2:31)
  3. Peanut Brittle Brigade (March) (4:39)
  4. Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy) (3:03)
  5. Entr'acte (1:52)
  6. The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance) (2:48)
  7. Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance) (2:48)
  8. Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers) (4:05)
  9. Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance) (5:47)
  10. Girls (2:40)
  11. Mahalia (3:11)
  12. Peg O' My Heart (2:58)
  13. Sweet Adeline (2:48)
  14. Juanita (3:17)
  15. Sylvia (2:40)
  16. Lena (2:21)
  17. Dinah (2:32)
  18. Clementine (2:48)
  19. Diane (2:37)

Credits

More from Duke Ellington: full discography