The Nutcracker Suite

The Nutcracker Suite is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded for the Columbia label in 1960 featuring jazz interpretations of "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky, arranged by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. The album was rereleased on CD in 1990 as part of Three Suites along with Ellington's reworking of Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite" and "Suite Thursday," his tribute to John Steinbeck. The original 1960 cover is notable for the inclusion of Strayhorn's name and picture along with Ellington's. In 2013, a new recording of the Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker Suite, and Tchaikovsky's original Nutcracker Suite, by conductor Steven Richman and Harmonie Ensemble/New York, was released on the Harmonia Mundi label.