Down for the Count, one of the UK’s top swing orchestras – hailed as “Awesome!” by Michael Bublé – are bringing that classic big band sound to Cambridge.
Formed by school friends in Buckinghamshire in the early 2000s, the orchestra’s Songs from the Golden Age of Swing tour will be calling into West Road Concert Hall next week.
Expect recreations of swing favourites from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, performed by the 30-piece ensemble.
Founder and conductor Mike Paul-Smith read medicine at Oxford, before focusing on a career in music.
He says: “We are a vintage swing band. We started when I was about 18, so that’s half a lifetime ago now.
“We all met at school in Buckinghamshire – we lived in Aylesbury and had the luck to be able to go to the fantastic Music Centre in Aylesbury, and since then we’ve gone on to perform all over the country.”
Mike says that the ever-popular big band sound is “really booming at the moment”, adding: “The thing about our band is that we think we’re the only people who tour this music with a string section, so that’s really quite special – we do it bigger than most other bands do.”
Down for the Count have played some of the country’s top venues, including the lovely Cadogan Hall in London – and have also performed abroad, in places such as Le Caveau de la Huchette in Paris, a famous jazz club which was featured at the end of the film La La Land.
“A real highlight for us has been Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which is one of the largest concert halls in the country,” notes Mike, who received classical piano tuition from former BBC Young Musician of the Year Anna Markland, and jazz piano tuition from Gwilym Simcock and Jo Ruddick, while studying at Aylesbury.
“We’ve performed at the London Jazz Festival a few times, which has been great, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in the centre of London, that’s a really special historic venue where we’re lucky enough to perform regularly, and then all sorts of other concert halls up and down the country, like Bath Forum and The Stoller Hall in Manchester, a beautiful purpose-built concert hall.”
Some band members have been there from the early days, notes Mike, who started playing in orchestras and bands while still at school.
“The band has expanded each year, and there’s been a bit of turnover but there’s two people who have been in it since the very start, when it was a six-piece band – so that’s a 50 per cent retaining!”
Mike says the Cambridge audience can expect to hear lots of “really well-known songs”, like That’s Life and New York, New York. Luck Be a Lady is going to be in the setlist too.
“Songs like The Girl from Ipanema as well – classic songs that even if audiences don’t necessarily know off the top of their head, when they hear them they’ll recognise them – and they’re some of the best songs I think ever written in this style.”
Mike adds: “We try and keep it nice and casual and informal; we want people to enjoy themselves and leave full of the joy of live music.”
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Down for the Count, conducted by Mike and featuring Marvin Muoneké and Lydia Bell on vocals, will be bringing their Songs from the Golden Age of Swing show to West Road Concert Hall on Friday, 12 April.
For tickets, priced from £21 (students in full-time education from £15, under-18s from £12), visit westroad.org. For more on the orchestra, visit downforthecount.co.uk and for more on Mike, go to mikepaulsmith.co.uk.
