KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Dec. 1, 2021 \u2013 Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cThe Nutcracker Suite\u201d is as Christmassy as candy canes, decked halls and snowy eves. The fairy tale ballet and its iconic soundtrack have long been holiday staples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Symphony Orchestra and Big Band are teaming up to give concert-goers a rare treat with dueling versions of \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d on Saturday, Dec. 4, in the Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, on the Kingston Campus. The Symphony Orchestra will open the show with four selections from Tchaikovsky\u2019s 1892 masterpiece and the Big Band will then jazz things up with five songs from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn\u2019s 1960 jazz treatment of the suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe really want this to be a different type of holiday concert,\u201d said Emmett Goods, director of the Big Band. \u201cIt would be great to just play \u2018Frosty the Snowman\u2019 and \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 and tell everyone to sing along. But this is an opportunity to present two masterworks that are definitely connected to the season and are extremely challenging for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is very rarely done,\u201d added Ann Danis, director of the Symphony Orchestra. \u201cThe chance to hear a full orchestra and then a jazz band doing the same music should be mind-bending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While concert-goers can probably hum along with entire movements of Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cNutcracker,\u201d the Ellington reimagining is somewhat less known outside jazz enthusiasts. But in the last several decades, the jazz score, first published in 2010, has become more popular as a holiday performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goods first heard it in the late 1980s or early 1990s. \u201cI remember hearing it in middle school when I was still kind of new to being a musician and just being blown away,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew \u2018The Nutcracker.\u2019 My school had taken us to downtown Pittsburgh to see the ballet. But to hear it as jazz was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ellington, a pianist, composer and leader of one of the most influential big bands of the 1930s and \u201840s, came to rework Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cNutcracker\u201d in 1960 after seeing his band\u2019s prominence wane and then rebound in the 1950s. While a creator of dozens of jazz hits, he was also a writer in line with classical composers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople came to Ellington with this expectation of this is high art,\u201d said Goods. \u201cHe was thinking like all the great composers that came out of the Western tradition, but he\u2019s using this African-based music, this Americanized music called jazz. Then when he gets to \u2018The Nutcracker Suite,\u2019 it\u2019s the perfect combination. It\u2019s not just about him taking the best of jazz and saying it\u2019s a suite. It\u2019s about him taking an actual suite and making it jazz. That\u2019s the genius of the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scholarly research of Ellington\u2019s collected works in the 1990s showed that Strayhorn, Duke\u2019s long-time collaborator, had written most of the songs on the 1960 album, Goods said. The original album cover, a picture of which is included in the concert program, includes an acknowledgment of Strayhorn\u2019s contributions, with his name up top between those of Ellington and Tchaikovsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the only times that Billy gets credit and it was important to Duke so much that he had the record company put up the three names,\u201d said Goods, who will provide a history and significance of \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d in between the two performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday, the orchestra will perform some of the most popular songs from Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cNutcracker\u201d \u2013 \u201cMarch,\u201d \u201cDance of the Reed Pipes,\u201d \u201cDance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,\u201d and \u201cTrepak.\u201d The Big Band will perform the corresponding jazz versions \u2013 \u201cToot Toot Tootie Toot,\u201d \u201cPeanut Brittle Brigade,\u201d \u201cSugar Rum Cherry\u201d and \u201cVolga Vouty\u201d (along with the iconic \u201cOverture\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to feel the difference because you\u2019ll hear the orchestra and they will have played them exactly like you expect,\u201d Goods said. \u201cDuke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn took that material and kept the melody the same and then put it into jazz context. The thing that really makes the jazz version work is that you can sing the melodies. It fits perfectly. That\u2019s the genius of Billy Strayhorn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In performing Tchaikovsky, the 52-piece orchestra will include 16 musicians from the Warwick Symphony Orchestra, including its music director, Catherine Gagnon, a regular member of the 溏心vlog免费B站 symphony. While \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d is a ubiquitous holiday classic, it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s an easy lift for the orchestra, Danis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe students have heard it but have not played it before so it\u2019s a big chunk of music to learn,\u201d she said. \u201cTchaikovsky is never easy for an orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To re-create the Ellington and Strayhorn score, a few of the 18 Big Band musicians have had to pick up a new instrument \u2013 such as clarinet, piccolo, finger cymbals, and tambourine \u2013 a lesson in what it takes to be a versatile, working musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But also, Goods said, a part of the lesson for his musicians is getting back to the basics after the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. That means learning the music of Count Basie, which was the focus of the Big Band\u2019s fall concert, and Ellington \u2013 \u201ctwo of the most important Black big bands in the history of jazz,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe ABCs of how to play big band jazz is, can you play Count Basie and can you play Duke Ellington?\u201d Goods said. \u201cIf you can play those two styles, you can basically play anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday\u2019s concert in the Concert Hall starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 for general admission; $7 for students, seniors (60 and over), and free for children under 12. To purchase tickets and see the University\u2019s COVID-19 guidelines, please go to the event site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n