The Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (CCJO), one of the Midwest’s leading jazz ensembles, is bringing new life to a timeless holiday favorite. Founded in 2013 by University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music professor Scott Belck and arts administrator LeAnne Anklan, the CCJO is a 17-piece nonprofit big band dedicated to performing, preserving, and teaching jazz as a living art form. Under the artistic direction of Eric Lechliter, the orchestra performs six shows per season at The Redmoor, making jazz accessible to audiences of all backgrounds.
After several sold-out holiday performances of their jazz reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, the CCJO has captured the magic on record with The Nutcracker Remix — a 12-track album featuring nine reimagined pieces from the ballet and three bonus Christmas tracks sung by powerhouse jazz vocalist Mandy Gaines.
The project was first imagined by former CCJO band director Rob Parton (now at the University of North Texas), inspired by Duke Ellington’s 1960 classic The Nutcracker Suite. Together with Lechliter and trombonist/arranger Dominic Marino, he set out to reinvent The Nutcracker for the 21st century — blending global jazz influences, inventive rhythms, and bold improvisation.
Lechliter and Marino split the arranging duties, while Billboard-charting trumpeter and producer Kim Pensyl handled production, mixing, and mastering. The result is a modern big band masterpiece filled with wit, groove, and musical craftsmanship.
Tracks like “The Pistachio March (March of the Toy Soldiers)” and “Sugar Rush (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)” explode with energy, inventive solos, and genre-crossing flair — from samba and funk to hip hop and swing. Elsewhere, “Everybody Digs Flowers (Waltz of the Flowers)” and “Caiproska” show the band’s versatility, flowing from delicate trio moments to full-throttle brass power. The playful titles pay homage to Ellington’s whimsical spirit while giving each tune a 21st-century edge.
To close the album, Mandy Gaines delivers three stunning bonus tracks: a lush take on Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here,” a soulful R&B-infused “Merry Christmas Baby,” and her touching original “Christmas This Year,” written in memory of a close friend.
For over a decade, the CCJO has carved out a place among America’s most dynamic big bands, collaborating with Grammy-winning artists and premiering original works that celebrate both tradition and innovation. With The Nutcracker Remix, they reaffirm that jazz is not only alive — it’s constantly reinventing itself.
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