For the second straight year, the innovative drummer/composer Joe McCarthy and his Latin Grammy award-winning New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band (NYABABB) will crisscross the country to perform The Pan American Nutcracker Suite (PANS), their spirited and swinging Latin jazz reimagining of Pyotr IIyich Tchaikovsky’s immortal 1892, eight-part ballet suite and Christmas classic, The Nutcracker. Don’t miss Side by Side: The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band and the Yale Concert Band when they perform two, interspersed settings of Tchaikovsky’s beloved masterpiece at Yale University’s Woolsey’s Hall, 500 College Street, in New Haven, on December 6, at 7:30 pm.

The performance, which includes Afro-Latin rhythms from the NYABABB’s 2022 album also titled The Pan American Nutcracker Suite, is presented in the spirit of the season as part of the Yale School of Music’s Ellington Jazz Series.

In addition to McCarthy on drum set, the NYABABB includes Hector Martignon, piano; Luisito Quintero, percussion; Boris Kozlov, bass; Vinny Valentino, guitar; Nick Marchione, lead trumpet; Tony Kadleck, David Neves and Diego Urcola, trumpet; Alejandro Aviles, lead alto saxophone; Andrew Gould, alto saxophone; Luis Hernandez  and Lucas Pino, tenor saxophone; Matt Hong, baritone saxophone; Joe Fielder, lead trombone; Juanga Lakunza and Sam Blakeslee, trombone; and James Borowski, bass trombone.

Tickets are $11.00 - $31.00 and are available here.

The Pan American Nutcracker Suite, a jazz/Afro-Caribbean reconceptualization of Tchaikovsky’s classic, co-created and arranged by drummer Joe McCarthy and Vince Norman, unites diverse musical traditions of the Americas and beyond. Each movement of the Pan American Nutcracker Suite will be followed by one from the traditional, classical arrangement performed by the Yale Concert Band, led by Thomas C. Duffy, in a presentation that juxtaposes two complementary versions of this timeless masterpiece.

“Overall, last year's tour was highly successful,” McCarthy says. “It was a little over ambitious, as we also introduced a dance version and a visual presentation of the suite, which we are not doing this year. I'm hoping that more people have had a chance to absorb some of the music, and at the same time, I look forward to enlightening people that have not heard it. I think that what we've created is unique and very accessible, whether people are fans of jazz or pop.”

The big band’s tour began on November 3 at the Scottish Rite Museum and Library  in Lexington, MA, and includes stops at Yale University in New Haven, CT (December 6), Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, NY (December 17-18) and Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland, CA (December 23).

McCarthy and his big band released The Pan American Nutcracker Suite album in 2022, on his Angelface Records label, which LatinJazz.net hailed as “a five-star performance from end to end.” Reimagined in McCarthy and co-arranger/conductor Vince Norman’s arresting arrangements, and driven by McCarthy’s Tony Williams and Ray Barrett-inspired, in-the-pocket drumming, the recording includes the infectious, Afro-grooved take on “Overture,” the martial mambo-fired bolero “March,” and a cha-cha-cha/6/8 take of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” “Trepak” reminiscences in Ellington’s terrific tempos he recorded on his 1960 recording of The Nutcracker Suite with Billy Strayhorn, contrasted to the atmospheric, Gil Evans-inspired vibe on “Arabian Dance.” The Chinoiserie cadences on “Chinese Dance,” are matched in intensity by the partido alto-pulsed Brazilian rhythms on “Dance of the Reed Flutes” and the Venezuelan joropo dance grooves on “Waltz of the Flowers,” which was nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award® In the Best Arrangement category.

A native of Connecticut and a graduate of the University of North Texas, McCarthy is a 20-year veteran of The United States Naval Academy Band. He was inspired to create the PANS around 2019 during the Pandemic, writing two movements with arranger Vince Norman. McCarthy moved to Miami to take a teaching position, and he finished writing the piece there. The University of Texas at Arlington commissioned McCarthy to premier the suite in 2021. “Tchaikovsky's music is so perfect. It's just perfect music… such amazingly great writing that is durable and flexible,” McCarthy proclaimed. “My real challenge was coming up with some great rhythmic settings to present this [Suite] in a different way. And that's how we came up with what we came up.”

McCarthy’s previous recordings include The Caribbean Jazz Project/Afro Bop Alliance featuring Dave Samuels won a 2008 Latin Grammy® and was also nominated in the Latin Jazz category at the 2009 Grammy Awards®. His other recordings include Encarnacion, Una Mas, Camino Nuevo, Angel Eyes, and Upwards and Revelation. The big band also won four Wammie Music Awards.

More than a remake or a re-arrangement, McCarthy’s PANS is a rousing work of art that speaks in all musical languages and is understood across the world’s peoples and cultures. “Music has zero boundaries,” McCarthy authoritatively states. “It was my job not to mess up a masterpiece! I'm not a big fan of regurgitating other people's music, so it was extremely important that I did something that was completely different. So, when people hear what we do, and whether they have ever seen or heard The Nutcracker, they'll realize that a piece of music like this is just borderless. Music is a universal language.”

For more information on Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band, click here.

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