‘The Pan American Nutcracker Suite’ rethinks a classic with a jazzed-up multi-cultural musical interpretation

This season has brought many variations on “The Nutcracker.” West Hartford’s Ballet Theatre Company rethought Tchaikovsky’s classic second act for performances on Thanksgiving weekend, CONNetic Dance’s “The Nutcracker Suite & Spicy,” which features breakdancing, jazz and ugly sweaters, has been adapted to the video screens outside The Bushnell, and on New Year’s Eve, the touring “Hip Hop Nutcracker” will return to The Bushnell. Now comes a multicultural big band classical/jazz “Pan American Nutcracker Suite,” arranged and performed by the New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band, mixing it up at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook.

The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band is a group Joe McCarthy started nearly 20 years ago. “It capitalizes on percussion and rhythms from around the world,” says McCarthy.

McCarthy, a drummer, did the arrangements for the suite with his longtime collaborator Vince Norman. “I created the grooves for all the movements first. We’re using a standard 18-piece big band, plus percussion.”

The full suite lasts takes about 50 minutes to perform.

McCarthy, who studied at the Hartt School in West Hartford, has roots in both classical and jazz music. He says that when arranging “The Pan American Nutcracker Suite,” “we drew more from classical than from Duke Ellington, but it’s also completely our own.”

The inspiration for a multi-cultural musical interpretation of “The Nutcracker,” McCarthy says, has nothing to do with the ballet’s accompanying story, which traditionally includes dances in Russian, Chinese and other styles. Nor is dance a key element. The band filmed some videos using modern dancers, but the Dec. 13 show at The Kate is a straightforward music concert.

“The suite itself has eight movements,” McCarthy explains. “There is no incidental music, as in the ballet. There’s no dance on this tour.”

This is the first time the piece has toured live in any format since a recorded version of the piece was released in September. A listen to the album confirms that the band is well-named. As jazz Nutcrackers go (and there are a few), this one’s more bop-oriented: smoother, more syncopated, more structured, less raw and improvisational — though McCarthy says there is a little room for improvisation in the live rendition. It’s a crisp, snappy new take on Tchaikovsky that respects the original.

“The response to the record has been extremely positive,” McCarthy says. “We actually did a listening party in Old Saybrook because we were in town. People were blown away.”

McCarthy grew up in Meriden, attended the Hartt School as an undergraduate and was living in Madison shortly before the COVID epidemic began. He now lives in Miami. McCarthy was also in Connecticut a few years ago when the musical theater version of the movie “The Bodyguard” toured at The Bushnell.

In between his times in Connecticut, McCarthy went to grad school at the University of North Texas and was with the United States Naval Academy Band, based in Annapolis, Maryland for 20 years. It was while playing in service bands that he met Vince Norman, with whom he’s worked on numerous projects.

McCarthy later went to New York and built the New from the music scene there. “One reason I wanted to get to New York after the Navy band was that great musicians flock to New York,” McCarthy says. “It’s hard to be there and not include people of many different cultures and from all walks of life. That’s the sound I had in my ears. A lot of different things are going into this.”

Asked to identify a signature moment that helps define the concept of this updated, syncopated “Nutcracker,” McCarthy mentions that the start of the second movement sounds just like “Bolero,” with the same rhythm as the trumpet plays in the 1928 Ravel classic, and the snare drum going into a mambo.

“Everybody knows the melodic concept of ‘The Nutcracker.’ It’s so strong. So you can take chances,” he says. Adding Latin grooves brings “a different feeling. This idea for the ‘Pan American Nutcracker Suite’ started a long time ago. Then, when we were all starting to come out of COVID, one of my close friends commissioned us to finish writing this so he could perform it with his college band.

“That was in November of 2021. Then we recorded it in the spring. I don’t consider it a Christmas record. It’s a serious record, not fluffy by any means, though it’s fun and really fun to play live.”

The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band performs its “Pan American Nutcracker Suite” on Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $35. katharinehepburntheater.org.