By: Anna Harwell Celenza / Illustrated by: Don Tate

The hippest cats of jazz-a-tooty were Duke Ellington and his friend Billy Strayhorn. Together they composed some of the swingingest sounds in jazz and big band music, and people loved to dance to the music of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. When a music producer offered Duke a recording contract and said he could do anything he wanted, Billy, a classically trained musician, suggested Duke tackle Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, but with a twist.

The Sugar Plum Fairy became the sultry Sugar Rum Cherry, the Dance of the Reed Pipes became Toot Toot Tootie Toot, like a calliope at Coney Island, and the Waltz of the Flowers became the Dance of the Floreadores—like the flashy big spenders in Vegas. The rest of Tchaikovsy’s masterpiece was introduced to the musical influences of the great American cities of 1960: Las Vegas, Harlem, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and more.

Don Tate’s vibrant, exciting illustrations swirl across the page like the sounds of Duke and Billy’s modern Nutcracker dreams. A CD recording of the Ellington/Strayhorn composition is also included when you purchase the "Hardcover with CD option."