Spokane Jazz Orchestra features Carruthers, Ellington

The Spokane Jazz Orchestra will have two ornaments swingin’ from its tree on Saturday: the jazzy voice of Seattle songstress Charlotte Carruthers and Duke Ellington’s jazz arrangement of “The Nutcracker Suite.”

Both will be featured in the SJO’s annual “Holiday in Jazz” concert at The Met.

Carruthers, daughter of Spokane pianist Arnie Carruthers, will be front and center on a variety of holiday songs including “White Christmas,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “The Christmas Song” and a Santa Claus medley.

She began singing with her father in 1973, sitting in with him at the piano bar at the old Louis D’s at the Davenport Hotel. She moved to New York in 1989 and sang with the New York Choral Society and also on some jazz recording projects.

Carruthers moved to Eugene, Ore., in 1993 and sang with a rock ‘n’ roll band as well as with classical ensembles. She landed in Seattle in 1998 and has appeared in Spokane with the SJO and other groups many times.

The first half of the evening’s program will be the jazzy “Nutcracker” by Ellington, which SJO conductor Dan Keberle said will “jump out and grab you by the ears.”

The piece uses Tchaikovsky’s familiar music as a starting point and gives it a distinctive Ellington/Strayhorn twist. Even the names of the individual segments sound jaunty: “Peanut Butter Brittle Brigade,” “The Vodka Voody” and “Sugar Rum Cherry.”

“Duke Ellington is without question the greatest composer of jazz to ever live,” said Keberle in a publicity release. “In fact, Ellington has already gone down in history as not only the greatest composer in jazz, but also one of the greatest American composers ever … period.”

For more information, visit www.spokanejazz.com.