Mr Sun Conjures Ellington’s Nutcracker in March of 2023, Darol Anger, Joe K. Walsh, Grant Gordy, and Aidan O’Donnell went into the recording studio to transmogrify the legendary Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker Suite into the Acoustic String Band, as Mr Sun.
Their studio of choice was Mass/MOCA Recording studio #9 in North Adams, Massachusetts, a state-of-the art recording facility built by the Mass/MOCA Art Museum. The recording engineer was the equally legendary David Sinko, who has recorded many of the most important and innovative acoustic string bands of the last 40 years. The mixing process is almost complete as of this date, and the recording will be mastered in June by David Glasser. Artwork for the physical package is going forward.
On Mr Sun's new recording, the pieces of the Suite range from close interpretations of Billy Strayhorn’s original charts to intense extrapolations based on the spirit of the material.
On the recording Mr Sun generally played original improvised solos, though some crucial musical statements by giants such as Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves were transcribed directly and played in their spirit. Most of Strayhorn’s startling original horn voicings have been preserved in bowed strings, with multi-mandolin parts adding a wholly new punchy edge.
There is one new additional piece, drawn directly from Tchaikovsky's Ballet, setting three themes from Act 1’s Snow Scene in classic “Dawg Music” format. Jerry Douglas interprets an iconic Lawrence Brown trombone solo on Dance Of The Floreadores, now re-titled “(don’t) Walk On The Flowers”. The Russian Dance is now hilariously full-on Bluegrass with banjo guest Alison Brown while still using the spy-movie intros, outros, and background lines of Strayhorn's original.
Mr Sun will premiere the work at the Freshgrass Festival at Mass/MOCA in September of 2023, concurrent with the release of the recording. The Project has been generously underwritten by the Freshgrass Foundation.
Tchaikovsky’s extraordinary Nutcracker Suite contains some of the most beloved and familiar melodies in the Western world. Mr Sun has seized upon the inspiration of Duke Ellington’s brilliant, sly, & urbane re-interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Suite as an opportunity to salute and re-invent this wildly multi-faceted work anew, through the lens of the American String Band, a musical format which now encompasses many styles and is presently engaged in a marathon upheaval of innovation and expansion.
THE SUITE:
Overture 5:09
(don’t) Walk On The Flowers 5:21
Peanut Brittle Brigade 4:46
Yangtze Dawdle 2:41
Sugar Rum Cherry 5:26
Entr'acte 1:39
Reedy McReady’s Rootin Tootin Pipey Gripey Waltz 5:13
Shovasky’s Transmogrifatron 3:46
Arabica 5:49
Russian Fox Chase 3:18