“Introduction – Nutcracker Suite”
Composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky; arranged by Billy Strayhorn.
Recorded by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on May 26, 1960 in Los Angeles.
Duke Ellington, piano, directing: Eddie Mullins, Andres Meringuito, Willie Cook and Ray Nance, trumpets; Lawrence Brown, Mitchell “Booty” Wood, Britt Woodman, trombones; Juan Tizol, valve trombone; Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges, alto saxophones; Jimmy Hamilton, tenor saxophone and B-flat clarinet; Harry Carney, baritone saxophone; Aaron Bell, bass; Sam Woodyard, drums.
This is the second of two posts that celebrate the music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutctrcaker. The first post, featuring Tommy Dorsey’s take on Danse Arabe, can be accessed via this link: https://swingandbeyond.com/2024/11/22/turbans-on-parade-danse-arab-1953-tommy-dorsey-swing-meets-the-nutcracker-part-one/
The story – Part One – Collaboration:
Collaboration between two people, in its ideal form, can be a beautiful thing. It is wonderful to aspire and work toward ideals with another like-minded person. How much better this world would be if we all tried to do the best we can, sometimes in collaboration sometimes not, without hurting, intentionally or unintentionally, someone else. Unfortunately, the world we live in is not perfect, and there are people in it who are untroubled by hurting others. Consequently, collaborations, like most other human endeavors, are often fraught.
In my study of collaborations, especially in music, I have come to the conclusion that most people involved in such collaborations have, first and foremost, great respect for the person(s) they are collaborating with. Talented people are usually quick to recognize talent in others. They often admire others whom they recognize as having great talent. Great talent in music is a magnet: it draws others, be they people in audiences, other musicians, and/or indeed other musicians who themselves have great talent. Highly talented musicians like to work with each other to see what is possible when they do so. They stimulate each other.
Duke Ellington recognized the talent of Billy Strayhorn when they first met. He admired Strayhorn’s extraordinary skill as a composer and arranger, and soon found ways and means of utilizing those skills in his world of music.
Billy Strayhorn in Pittsburgh shortly before he met Duke Ellington.
Although in an ideal world, collaborators would be equals in most respects, such equality in the real world is almost always impossible for myriad reasons. In fact, most collaborators are very different and unequal in many respects. When Duke Ellington met Billy Strayhorn in late 1938, he was an internationally famous bandleader who was headlining at the largest theater in Billy’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Billy was a struggling young musician whose great talent was too large to be contained by Pittsburgh. After Duke hired Billy, his relationship with him was in many ways like that of a patron, as in patron of the arts. Duke was one of the relatively few artists who acted as a patron to another artist, and being who he was, he did it in a quintessentially Ellingtonian fashion. Soon after Duke summoned Billy to New York to work for him, Billy found himself living in Duke’s elegant apartment with the Ellington family. From that point onward, Duke bestowed upon Billy the support, encouragement, privilege and financial assistance that he though Billy needed. It was a paternalistic relationship, like those Duke had with many other people in his life including his family members, his mistresses, and the sidemen and others involved in the musical operation of his band. Duke was benevolent in his paternalism; but he was also unmistakably controlling.
Early on, Strayhorn was elated to be associated with the great Duke Ellington, and joyously took on all of the musical tasks Duke gradually began assigning to him. Duke marveled at how well Billy did what he was asked to do. Gradually, Ellington, who was almost always overworked to an absurd degree, began to assign more and more work to Strayhorn. Billy usually met or exceeded Duke’s expectations. Duke continued to be generous to Billy in many ways. Their collaboration grew.
Duke Ellington had a theatrical personality and a colossal ego. Billy Strayhorn did not. Duke loved nothing more that being onstage dressed to the nines, directing his band of virtuoso musicians, charming audiences, traveling and living the life of a celebrity. Billy Strayhorn loved staying in New York, interacting with his circle of friends, working on whatever Ellington had most recently assigned him, and enjoying the solitude he had in his various homes in Manhattan over the years, where he pursued his many cultural and intellectual interests. Although Billy did frequently travel with the Ellington band, his life was centered in Manhattan. And although Ellington maintained a succession of homes in Manhattan through most of his career, he was seldom at home, and he liked it that way. His home was everywhere and nowhere.
The story – Part Two – The Nutcracker Suite and Ellington/Strayhorn:
In mid-March of 1960, Billy Strayhorn flew from New York to Las Vegas, where the Ellington band was ensconced for a twelve-week engagement at the Starlight Lounge of the Riviera Hotel. He had been summoned by Duke to meet with a producer from Columbia Records, to whom Ellington was then contracted, to discuss future recording projects. In due course, Irving Townsend of Columbia Records came to Las Vegas to meet with Duke. Ellington, probably because he did not have any real project in his creative pipeline then, began discussing in very vague terms the idea he had hatched in collaboration with Strayhorn to compose a suite of music for impresario Jimmy Lyons that could be presented at his Monterey Jazz Festival in September of 1960, based on John Steinbeck’s novel Sweet Thursday. Townsend was “…only halfheartedly responsive to (this idea).” 
Then, as Jimmy Hamilton (clarinetist with the Ellington band, who was in the group of people Duke had surrounded himself with, including Strayhorn), recalled: “…Duke told Billy to speak up. ‘Strayhorn, why don’t explain your latest idea? It’s quite an idea!’ That’s when Billy told everybody about The Nutcracker Suite… Billy had a way with words…He talked that thing up. That’s when it was decided that we would do The Nutcracker Suite.'”(1)
After this, Strayhorn returned to Manhattan to write the music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite for the Ellington band to record for Columbia Records. He would complete the writing part of the project by the end of May, then meet Duke and the band in Los Angeles to assist with recording the music. The recording sessions took place at Radio Recorders, 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard, starting on June 3, 1960.
The music:
Billy Strayhorn completed nine separate arrangements on music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, and all of them were recorded and issued on a Columbia long-playing record. He approached this project with joyous zeal, immersing himself in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker music. “Doing the Tchaikovsky suite was like a tonic (for him.)” recalled Marian Logan, Billy’s close personal friend. “It was a beautiful springtime, but you would have thought it was Christmas the way he was carrying-on with that Nutcracker. He loved (that music) so much.” (2)
At the recording sessions, “Billy was very, very greatly involved…” recalled Jimmy Hamilton. “Everybody (including Duke) was very happy with the results.” (3)
Strayhorn’s take on the Introduction to the Nutcracker Suite starts with a vamp played by bassist Aaron Bell, picked up by drummer Sam Woodyard, laying down the kind of back-beat that Duke loved. The trombone choir heard next consists of four instruments, instead of three which was the norm in the Ellington band. They play the main melody, with lower-register saxophones bubbling in the background. They are joined by the open trumpets, played softly, to create a brighter sonority. (Above right: Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in the recording studio. Paul Gonsalves is in the background.)
Tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves at first plays a brief but warmly swinging abstraction of a secondary melody, then he flutters about as the ensemble plays a tension-building ascending passage that leads to a restrained full-band recap of the main melody. This ends abruptly as trombonist Mitchell “Booty” Wood appears, playing with a plunger cup being manipulated at the bell of his instrument, backed by the saxophones in soft, short bursts. This is a marvelous contrast to what came before. (Above left: tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. Jimmy Hamilton is seated in the background.)
Another momentary pause, trumpeter Ray Nance steps forward to play a lovely, melodic open-horn solo. His sound here is particularly beautiful. Strayhorn swathes him in soft saxophones at first, then softly played open brass as he moves up in register. Notice how Billy takes the saxophone background down while Nance moves up, a felicitous arranging touch. (At right: trumpeter Ray Nance.)
The full band chorus that follows is a kaleidoscope of Strayhorn orchestral touches and sonic contrasts which gradually build to the exchanges between the richly harmonized saxophones and open brass.
The recording presented with this post was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) Lush Life … A Biography of Billy Strayhorn (1996), by David Hajdu, 203.
Here are links to some of Billy Strayhorn’s music, some in collaboration with Duke Ellington, some not:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/03/22/take-the-a-train-composed-and-arranged-by-billy-strayhorn/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2018/03/10/lush-life-1956-sarah-vaughan/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2021/07/13/a-flower-is-a-lovesome-thing-1961-billy-strayhorn/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/02/11/chelsea-bridge-billy-and-billy-strayhorn-and-may/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/03/18/sepia-panorama-1940-duke-ellington/
Be the first to comment