In 2006, Delfeayo Marsalis was recruited to play in a performance of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s version of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” But the New Orleans trombonist didn’t love the results.

“I felt like we didn’t capture the spirit of the music,” Marsalis told the Herald. “It was a performance for students, and they didn’t really know what to make of it.”

After the performance, Marsalis told a fellow musician that he was going to, “get together some guys who are going to play this music correctly.” That ensemble, the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, has now enjoyed 18 years together — and is maybe best known for its residences at New Orleans jazz club Snug Harbor.

Now Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra will revive Ellington and Strayhorn’s “The Nutcracker Suite” with three loca

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