Swing Into Christmas Queen's Hall Edinburgh 7th December 2024 review
Swing into Christmas was at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight featuring the Down For The Count Orchestra, and the venue has become a regular festive-time fixture on their touring schedule and each year new fans are obviously finding out about this show.
If you have never heard of DFTCO then a brief summary is maybe needed here. The band was formed in 2005 by Mike Paul-Smith, the orchestra’s principal conductor, orchestrator and arranger. The DFTCO perform throughout the year in a variety of different sized line-ups (you can even hire them for your own event), but this Christmas show is the full expanded orchestra featuring rhythm, horn and string sections.
Any Christmas show like this one is always going to be a little bit predictable as there are some songs that audiences simply expect to be there, but DFTCO do it so well as the orchestra, four vocalists, and Mike conducting and acting as our good-humoured guide to music and songs takes us back to a sugar-coated world and time where iconic stars of yesterday, including Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Duke Ellington reigned supreme in the music record charts and captured the hearts of millions of people in the process.
What always makes any of DFTCO’s shows interesting for me is Mike’s enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge of not only the big bands and the singers of this golden era of music, but of the songwriters and arrangers behind many of these popular songs. This was the time of great music arrangers, and one man, Nelson Riddle, worked with so many of the well-known artists of the day and his name is associated with many of the songs in tonight’s show.
There were some great songs in this show and some of the best known songwriters in popular music’s history had their works performed this evening. Amongst the songwriters featured who created much of what we now call “The Great American Songbook” were Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. The latter two wrote so many songs for Frank Sinatra that they were often referred to as his personal songwriters.
Many of this show’s songs were obviously Christmas or festive season ones so no surprise that “White Christmas”, “Winter Wonderland”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “The Christmas Waltz” were on the set list. A lot of non-festive time classics were also here too, but often performed in a nostalgic performance style that obviously brought back good memories for many people in the audience. When you have iconic songs such as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “After You’ve Gone”, and “Mr Bojangles” backed by the DFTCO they always sound a little special performed live.
Singing many of these songs is not an easy task for any vocalist, and although it always seems unfair to pick out people from the vocal line-up, Lydia Bell always has the ability not only to get the timing and phrasing just right on anything that she sings, but somehow can make you believe that you have stepped back in time with her to the 1950s. The only male singer in the four person vocal line-up tonight was Marvin Muoneké, but as always his deep and rich voice made him the perfect person for some of these songs.
As always with his presenting style, Mike Paul-Smith kept everything at a very light and at times humorous level that endeared him instantly to the audience. Make no doubt though that Mike and the DFTCO orchestra are very serious about bringing classic songs performed to a very high standard and a big show experience to their audiences with their Swing into Christmas shows.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
If you have never heard of DFTCO then a brief summary is maybe needed here. The band was formed in 2005 by Mike Paul-Smith, the orchestra’s principal conductor, orchestrator and arranger. The DFTCO perform throughout the year in a variety of different sized line-ups (you can even hire them for your own event), but this Christmas show is the full expanded orchestra featuring rhythm, horn and string sections.
Any Christmas show like this one is always going to be a little bit predictable as there are some songs that audiences simply expect to be there, but DFTCO do it so well as the orchestra, four vocalists, and Mike conducting and acting as our good-humoured guide to music and songs takes us back to a sugar-coated world and time where iconic stars of yesterday, including Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Duke Ellington reigned supreme in the music record charts and captured the hearts of millions of people in the process.
What always makes any of DFTCO’s shows interesting for me is Mike’s enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge of not only the big bands and the singers of this golden era of music, but of the songwriters and arrangers behind many of these popular songs. This was the time of great music arrangers, and one man, Nelson Riddle, worked with so many of the well-known artists of the day and his name is associated with many of the songs in tonight’s show.
There were some great songs in this show and some of the best known songwriters in popular music’s history had their works performed this evening. Amongst the songwriters featured who created much of what we now call “The Great American Songbook” were Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. The latter two wrote so many songs for Frank Sinatra that they were often referred to as his personal songwriters.
Many of this show’s songs were obviously Christmas or festive season ones so no surprise that “White Christmas”, “Winter Wonderland”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “The Christmas Waltz” were on the set list. A lot of non-festive time classics were also here too, but often performed in a nostalgic performance style that obviously brought back good memories for many people in the audience. When you have iconic songs such as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “After You’ve Gone”, and “Mr Bojangles” backed by the DFTCO they always sound a little special performed live.
Singing many of these songs is not an easy task for any vocalist, and although it always seems unfair to pick out people from the vocal line-up, Lydia Bell always has the ability not only to get the timing and phrasing just right on anything that she sings, but somehow can make you believe that you have stepped back in time with her to the 1950s. The only male singer in the four person vocal line-up tonight was Marvin Muoneké, but as always his deep and rich voice made him the perfect person for some of these songs.
As always with his presenting style, Mike Paul-Smith kept everything at a very light and at times humorous level that endeared him instantly to the audience. Make no doubt though that Mike and the DFTCO orchestra are very serious about bringing classic songs performed to a very high standard and a big show experience to their audiences with their Swing into Christmas shows.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com