Nutcracker

 We went to a concert this evening featuring Ellington / Srayhorn version of the Nutcracker.  I was thinking of Johnny Hodges and Russell Procope, etc...  as the students were reproducing their parts. The young woman playing the clarinet (Procope's parts) was particularly adept. 

I don't like the original Nutcracker that much, because it is overplayed.  Obviously, though, it had to exist first for the jazz version to come about, much later.