A SWEET NUTCRACKER: DUKE ELLINGTON MEETS TCHAIKOVSKY!

By Anna Harwell Celenza ▪ Illustrated by Don Tate 
A perfect picture book, with CD, for the holidays!

If my books can make classical music more accessible to kids, that would be a dream come true.
-Anna Harwell Celenza, author


Before illustrating this book, I never even considered listening to Ellington music — or Tchaikovsky either, for that matter. Big band jazz? Classical? That’s for old people, was my thinking. I’ll stick to my R&B, funk, hip-hop. But research for the book led me to Ellington’s and Tchaikovsky’s music. While I worked, I be-bopped to Toot Toot Tootie Toot and Zeet Zurzday. And before long, I was downloading jazz and classical music. I became a fan of both musical genres, and I hope this book will have the same effect on kids.
-Don Tate, illustrator (click on his name to see his illustrations from the book)


This book is the story behind the story of how the great Duke Ellington and his friend and collaborator Billy Strayhorn put a jazzy 1960's spin on an 1890's classical suite and created the nuttiest Nutcracker of all: