Sjo ‘Nutcracker’ Proves Positively Overwhelming

Spokane Jazz Orchestra Saturday, Dec. 2, The Met

With any kind of luck, a new Christmas tradition muscled its way onto the holiday calendar Saturday night.

Certainly, amid the singing Christmas trees, the ice shows and the annual round of Christmas ballets, there’s room for Duke Ellington’s stunning jazz interpretation of “The Nutcracker.”

Saturday night, under the direction of guest conductor Bill Drury, the Spokane Jazz Orchestra brought the rarely heard masterwork fully to life. Rarely has the SJO sounded so good, with well-honed sectional play and sparkling solos. Fortunately, sound problems that plagued the show’s first half were ironed out in time for the show-closing “Nutcracker.”

Ellington and his collaborator, trumpeter Billy Strayhorn, wrote their version of “The Nutcracker” in the 1960s and took advantage of 30 years of big-band tradition. Such pieces as “Danse of the Floreadores” (the renamed version of Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers”) and “Peanut Brittle Brigade” (“March”), swing in a traditional big-band way, while a more experimental posture is taken in the brilliant off-time dissonances of “Chinoiserie” (“Chinese Dance”) and the shimmering “Arabesque Cookie” (“Arabian Dance”).

The Ellington/Strayhorn “Nutcracker” succeeds in reframing Tchaikovsky’s themes and melodies, placing their cheerful ingenuity in a new light.

The delicate march of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Reed Pipes” survives the transition to Ellington’s “Toot Toot Tootie Toot,” but the piece falls into a kind of controlled chaos held together by a walking bass line and resolved with a swinging passage highlighted by muted trumpets.

“Chinoiserie” is an unorthodox off-time adventure featuring a conversation between Gary Edighoffer’s tenor sax and Karl Mota’s clarinet. Drummer Scott Jones’ delicate cymbal work underscored the back-and-forth of the reed players.

“The Nutcracker” is full of delicious instrumental pairings and exotic voicings. Ellington and Strayhorn make beautiful use of the bass clarinet, played here by SJO president Chris Moyer, and twice call on the drummer to tap out a rhythm on the toms with his fingertips.

“Arabesque Cookie” opened with a Paul Plowman piccolo solo over Jones’ tapping rhythm; Karl Mota’s clarinet and Moyer’s bass clarinet made beautiful sounds together, while Mark Alexander’s bass line throbbed below.

Dan Keberle, trumpet, and Gary Edighoffer, tenor sax, played “Peanut Brittle Brigade” solos that drew cheers from the crowd and trumpeter Andy Plamondon played several exceptional solos, but none better than his classically tinged turn during the “Overture.” Nat Wickham was brilliant throughout on trumpet and Mark Norton is an excellent find on piano.

Many kudos go to Drury, a former SJO sax player who has relocated to Boston to pursue a conducting career. He obtained the Ellington “Nutcracker” for the SJO performance and conducted it with verve and drama.

The only drawback to Ellington’s “Nutcracker” is that it overwhelmed everything else on the program. By show’s end, Stan Kenton’s warm and vibrant Christmas carols had faded into the background and even the encore performance of Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train” felt anticlimactic.