Swingin' holiday music

With the search for holiday gifts, a perfect tree, and a cute holiday dress also comes the quest for Christmas music that is new to your ears but does *not* drive you batty. Here's a CD that qualifies on both counts: that does *not* drive you batty. Here's a CD that I'm pretty sure most of you have never heard before: Duke Ellington's Nutcracker suite, the jazz master's take on Tchaikovsky's classic ballet score, replete with renditions of the Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy, the Russian Dance, the Waltz Of The Flowers, and others. Seriously folks, this music swings so hard I listen to it in July.

Amazon has it for $10 (you also get two other suites on the CD). Tower has it for $7, but it doesn't ship for 2 to 4 weeks. The tech savvy may be able to download or listen to the suite on Rhapsody Online.