# Duke Ellington’s “Nutcracker” and a special suite for the Queen: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/02/20/duke-ellingtons-nutcracker-and-a-special-suite-for-the-queen-video/
- Published: 2018-02-20T10:10:34+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Smithsonian Jazz Intern Jake Huss shares the stories behind the selections heard
at the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra’s holiday concert this year.**

_The Queen’s Suite_ is as beautiful and fascinating as the story of its creation,
which begins when an American Duke met the Queen of England. While performing at
the Leeds Music Festival in 1958, composer, pianist, and band leader Duke Ellington
was invited to attend the mayor’s reception at Leeds Civic Hall. After some speeches,
the guests were invited to meet the royal family. Ellington, being last in line,
took the opportunity to chat a bit longer with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Though he recalls being nervous to meet the royals, he remembers that the Queen 
herself was relaxed.

Ever the charmer, when asked if this was his first visit to the U.K., Ellington 
recalls how he responded: “‘Oh, I said, oh my first time in England was in 1933,
way before you were born.’ She gave me a real American look; very cool man, which
I thought was too much.” He also recalls what planted the seeds of the suite: “I
told her that she was so inspiring and that something musical would come out of 
it. She said she would be listening, so I wrote an album for her.”

![Queen Elizabeth II, in a dress and crown, meets Ellington, in a suit](https://
i0.wp.com/americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/Ellington-
Meets-British-Royal-Family.jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "A meeting of royals: when Duke Ellington
met Queen Elizabeth II at Leeds in 1958 he promised her music and "The Queen's Suite"
was born. Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American
History.")

A meeting of royals: when Duke Ellington met Queen Elizabeth II at Leeds in 1958
he promised her music and “The Queen’s Suite” was born. Duke Ellington Collection,
Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

True to his word, Ellington worked with his musical partner Billy Strayhorn to pen
and record _The Queen’s Suite_ in 1959. Though news of the music escaped into the
world, not a single note did. Ellington pressed only one copy of the recording and
sent it directly to Buckingham Palace for Her Majesty’s ears only. The music remained
unheard by the public for the rest Ellington’s life. It wasn’t until 1976 (two years
after Ellington’s death and nine after Strayhorn’s), that _The Queen’s Suite_ was
released, along with two similar pieces on the album _The Ellington Suites. _The
historical record remains a bit fuzzy if the 1976 recording originated from a studio
archive or Buckingham Palace, adding to the Suite’s air of mystery. The museum holds
the original score—part of our vast Duke Ellington Collection—with 100,000 pages
of his unpublished music.

![Strayhorn in glasses and turtleneck sweater at piano](https://i0.wp.com/americanhistory.
si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/http---sirismm.si_.edu-archivcenter-
misc-AC0301-0000016.jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "Billy Strayhorn, seated at piano, pointing.
Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.")

**Billy Strayhorn, seated at piano, pointing. Duke Ellington Collection, Archives
Center, National Museum of American History.**

Ellington and Strayhorn did not save all their gifts for royals. At Christmas 1960,
the composing duo managed something truly extraordinary: a successful reimagining
of _The Nutcracker Suite_. This suite was first composed as a ballet score by Russian
composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1892. It wasn’t until 68 years later that Ellington
and Strayhorn released their own version, refocused through the lens of big band
jazz.

In his original liner notes for the Ellington-Strayhorn _Nutcracker Suite_, record
producer Irving Townsend included the fantastic fiction that Ellington met Tchaikovsky
while Ellington’s orchestra was performing at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Knowing
that the Russian died in 1893, a full six years before the American was born, this
meeting never could have happened in the literal sense. However, listening to the
jazzed-up _Nutcracker_, one could imagine the work as a meeting place for the three
great composers, separated by oceans and decades, but communicating through art.

![Group of 11 men and women post around piano in living room](https://i0.wp.com/
americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/http---sirismm.
si_.edu-archivcenter-scurlock-AC0618.004.0000314%20%281%29.jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "Duke
Ellington sitting at a piano, surrounded by guests at a party at Edna Ellington's.
At the center rear, standing, the shortest man wearing glasses and bow tie is William
Thomas Strayhorn (known as "Billy" and sometimes "Sweet Pea"), 1915-1967.  Duke 
Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.")

Duke Ellington sitting at a piano, surrounded by guests at a party at Edna Ellington’s.
At the center rear, standing, the shortest man wearing glasses and bow tie is William
Thomas Strayhorn (known as “Billy” and sometimes “Sweet Pea”), 1915-1967. Duke Ellington
Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Ellington and Strayhorn did not simply place jazz rhythms over Tchaikovsky’s music.
Instead, they picked up the notes, recast the beats, communed with the themes, and
recreated the work, turning it into something that was at once completely their 
own and completely Tchaikovsky’s. In doing so, they showed that while music may 
be the universal language, it is spoken with many accents (and therein lies the 
fun).

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