Mr. Solar Brings New Life to Ellington’s Reimagined Nutcracker Suite

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Mr. Solar Brings New Life to Ellington’s Reimagined Nutcracker Suite

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October 28, 2023

Mr. Solar Brings New Life to Ellington’s Reimagined Nutcracker Suite

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How Duke Ellington’s redux of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite impressed Mr. Solar’s fashionable string band model.

Stream: “Pea Shooter Parade (March)” – Mr. Solar

According to the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s word on the manuscript rating, the orchestration for The Nutcracker Suite was accomplished on August twentieth, 1892. An entire efficiency of The Nutcracker Suite lasts round 20 to 25 minutes. The suite rapidly grew to become a preferred favourite.

By the point Duke Ellington recorded The Nutcracker Suite for the Columbia label in the summertime of 1960, he had already led a four-decade profession as a peerless innovator and legendary orchestra chief. It ought to be famous that Billy Strayhorn, Ellington’s longtime collaborator, is listed as a creator of the work, together with Ellington and Tchaikovsky.

The Nutcracker was Ellington’s first album-length challenge dedicated to the work of one other composer. And as an alternative of “jazzing up” The Nutcracker, Ellington re-envisions the piece, rewriting components and growing new melodies. Within the spirit of playfulness, Ellington even modified track titles: “Dance of the Reed-Pipes” turns into “Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes).”

In line with Katherine Baber, Ph.D., Professor of Music and Director of the Salzburg Program, College of Redlands, on this track, “The place Tchaikovsky had piping flutes and bassoons over a quiet string ostinato, Ellington has the reed part divided into clarinets and saxes in shut alternation, over a relaxed groove within the rhythm part, with extra forceful interjections from the brass. The melancholy, resonant English horn solo turns into a collection of broad smears with cup mutes within the trombones. The place the center portion of Tchaikovsky’s dance is an exoticized whirling dervish, with trumpets over an ostinato within the low strings and brass, Ellington as an alternative lets the band get away into an improvisatory part with the clarinet within the lead.”

The reimagined suite has a definite Ellingtonian signature with out dismissing Tchaikovsky’s unique conception. We all the time know what we’re listening to and the way it differs from the unique. Listening to “Entr’act,” we hear the composer’s orchestral textures, the colourful voices and nuanced dynamics of 4 totally different soloists, and we expertise the totality of the piece as being extra than simply the sum of its components. This happens in barely greater than 60 seconds.

Within the spirit of celebrating Ellington’s interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, Mr. Solar, a Nashville-based American string band group, led by Darol Anger, has likewise reinterpreted Ellington’s re-envisioning of the piece. Having seen Mr. Solar’s performances, I do know that there’s a combination of genius and playfulness of their musical method and elegance. On this challenge, Mr. Solar has taken on the towering problem of reinterpreting two legendary composers’ works. And with American string devices, no much less. How might this be achieved?

Mr Sun Plays Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite — Mr Solar Performs Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite

Mr. Solar premiered the work on the Freshgrass Competition in fall of 2023, concurrent with the track launch of “Pea Shooter Parade” forward of the complete album. The challenge has been generously underwritten by the Freshgrass Basis. Tchaikovsky’s extraordinary Nutcracker Suite accommodates among the most beloved and acquainted melodies within the Western world. Mr. Solar has seized upon the inspiration of Duke Ellington’s sensible, sly and urbane re-interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Suite as a chance to salute and re-invent this wildly multi-faceted work anew, by way of the lens of the American String Band, a musical type which now accommodates many kinds and is presently engaged in a marathon upheaval of innovation and enlargement.

Darol Anger, famend musician, has an intensive historical past of performing and commissioning a variety of preparations and compositions for varied musical ensembles. These embrace jazz teams, string orchestras, Bluegrass bands, string quartets, and full orchestras, collaborating with esteemed ensembles similar to The Berklee World Strings, Turtle Island String Quartet, The Kansas Prairie Orchestra, 4 Generations Of Jazz Violin, and The Wintergrass Orchestra, amongst others. Becoming a member of Anger is the proficient mandolinist Joe Okay. Walsh, who has garnered recognition throughout his award-winning four-year tenure with the Gibson Brothers. Like Anger, Walsh has additionally held a professorship at Berklee. Apparently, the challenge was really conceived by Walsh himself, as confirmed by Anger.

Including to the group’s numerous abilities is guitar virtuoso Grant Gordy, a former member of David Grisman’s ensemble. Gordy is a grasp of assorted musical kinds, together with bluegrass, R&B, rock, and jazz. Lastly, veteran jazz musician Aidan O’Donnell brings his wealth of expertise to the group. O’Donnell has had compositions commissioned and carried out for large bands, string quartets, and jazz ensembles. As a bass participant, he effortlessly transitions between being a featured soloist and enjoying a supportive position.

Every member of the ensemble possesses important expertise in composition and association. Joe Okay. Walsh has been main courses and ensembles centered on musical evaluation, association, and composition at Berklee Faculty since 2013. He has been composing and recording for string ensembles of assorted sizes since 2002, each as a pupil and as a professor at Berklee. Aidan O’Donnell has had his items commissioned and carried out by huge bands, string quartets, and jazz teams. His versatility as a bass participant permits him to excel as a soloist or present stable help throughout the ensemble. Grant Gordy has composed, organized, and recorded quite a few items for string ensembles of various configurations. He displays distinctive proficiency in ear coaching, music principle, composition software program, and improvisation.

As talked about, I’ve seen Mr. Solar carry out a couple of instances. Regardless of the complexity of the songs and the musical firepower the gamers possess, every participant brings exuberant pleasure to their performances, bobbing their heads and tapping their ft like viewers members. Anger is thought to drum his violin together with his bow, smiling. Throughout the performances, I used to be struck by the dialog between musicians, like they have been passing solos forwards and backwards to one another, generally ending one another’s licks. I might hear the musicians grunting and chortling, as in the event that they have been on a soccer area, making an attempt to impress one another with acrobatics and inconceivable performs. It wasn’t that they have been competing in opposition to one another. They have been enthusiastically making an attempt to dazzle one another, as if to say, “Hey, that was cool, test this out.” In the meantime the viewers was the beneficiary of their playful virtuosity. Darol says, “Cracking one another up is considered one of our favourite pastimes.”

All of this to say that the playfulness within the execution of extraordinarily complicated music provides a humorousness to the entire enterprise. We’re invited into the technical tips and musician’s virtuosity with out being overwhelmed. It’s like watching magicians carry out inconceivable feats with a smile, making issues disappear and reappear, with out breaking a sweat. That is the reward Mr. Solar provides to an viewers.

As Darol Anger wrote to me, “We’ve transmogrified the legendary and mind-blowing Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker Suite right into a recording by our Acoustic String Band, the one and solely Mr. Solar. It’s been past enjoyable. We’ve gotten further string gamers on there for the large sexy sound. We skipped the drums, however there’s loads of acoustic rhythms together with a full menu of the violin percussion [popularized by Darol over the last 25 years]. We’re not going to rule something out, together with cellos, mandocellos, dobros and banjos. Possibly.”

An enormous quantity of labor has gone into this challenge, arranging, translating, transposition, additional adaptation and inspiration have introduced this music to a brand new life as a string band. Simply as Strayhorn and Ellington utterly re-imagined Tchaikovsky’s imaginative and prescient, Mr. Solar has performed the identical, within the custom of The Scorching Membership Of France, the David Grisman Quintet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and the Republic Of Strings.

Darol added, “The items vary from shut interpretations of Strayhorn’s unique charts to intense extrapolations based mostly on the spirit of the fabric. Mr. Solar typically performed unique improvised solos, although a couple of lovely statements by giants similar to Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves have been transcribed immediately and performed of their spirit. A lot of the startling unique horn voicing has been preserved in bowed string and multi-mandolin components including a punchy edge. There may be one new further piece, drawn immediately from Tchaikovsky’s Ballet, which takes three themes and units them in traditional ‘Dawg Music’ format; and the ‘Russian Dance’ is now hilariously full-on Bluegrass with banjo visitor Alison Brown, however nonetheless utilizing the spy-movie intros, outros, and background traces of Strayhorn’s unique. Jerry Douglas interprets an iconic Lawrence Brown trombone solo on ‘Danse Of The Floreadores,’ now re-titled ‘Don’t Stroll On The Flowers.’”

It’s precisely this combination of astounding musical ability and playfulness that makes this album one thing to be each admired and loved.

“Russian Dance,” as Darol talked about, is a full-on bluegrass tune now. We hear the tune as Tchaikovsky wrote it beneath the texturing of banjo, guitar, and fiddle, however now the tune is ingested by way of Anger’s “Dawg” styling. Any fairly severe particular person will fall over guffawing on the reconfiguration of the tune. Whereas Mr. Solar’s “Russian Dance” is technically glorious, there may be comedy in its presentation. Our expectations are tossed out on their heads.

Equally Mr. Solar’s “Sugar Rum Cherry” has extra to do with Ellington’s than Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy.” Ellington opens with baritone and tenor saxes buying and selling melodies to the drumbeat. The melody continues whereas trumpets and a trombone play within the background. The bass phrase that Ellington repeats all through his model is much more funky and distinguished in Mr. Solar’s. I saved switching forwards and backwards between Tchaikovsky, Ellington and Mr. Solar to listen to the variations. There may be quite a lot of layering within the Mr. Solar model with the musicians enjoying a number of roles. Anger’s fiddle (or his overdubbed fiddle sounds) remembers a horn part. Gordy’s guitar, Walsh’s mandolin and Darol’s fiddle commerce locations, exchanging melodic dialog all through the piece. May this model be even sexier than Ellington’s? That’s as much as you to resolve.

Mr. Solar transforms Ellington’s jazz masterpiece “Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)” right into a swing jazz tune, recalling the band’s deep roots in Dawg music. Gordy’s impeccable guitar struts a solo, enjoying his distinctive model of chromatic crisscrossing. Gordy’s enjoying is adopted by Walsh’s slick mandolin soloing; the transition so refined, I needed to hear once more. The band’s familiarity of enjoying collectively is obvious within the change of intricate solo components, weaving out and in, seamlessly. Whereas Ellington’s “Peanut Brittle Brigade” is a “strolling” march, Mr. Solar’s “Pea Shooter Parade” is extra of a hundred-meter sprint. Tchaikovsky would have accepted of each, I feel.

Mr. Solar Performs Duke Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite is bound to be a traditional. I can think about each Tchaikovsky and Ellington tapping their toes and smiling when listening to Mr. Solar’s Nutcracker. I’m certain they might have gotten all the delicate humor buried within the tunes: the brand new preparations, the brand new track titles, the transpositions, the brand new melodies, the substitutions, and the extremely executed time signatures. And we, the listeners, can discover this masterpiece to no matter depth we want, or simply sit again and benefit from the music. Or each.

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