Joe McCarthy’s NY Afro Bop Alliance reimagines the Nutcracker Suite
In 1960, Columbia Records released Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite”, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet of the same name. Now, 62 years later, drummer Joe McCarthy and his New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band have once again taken Tchaikovsky’s iconic music, framing it in an Afro Cuban setting under the title “The Pan American Nutcracker Suite”.
