Swing Into Christmas Queen's Hall Edinburgh 17th November 2023 Review
Swing into Christmas at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight brought a little of that nostalgic sugar coating that so many of us love about Christmas a little bit earlier than usual and into November. To be fair, the musical purveyors of this winter wonderland of music, the Down For The Count Orchestra are only at date four of their larger 22 date Swing into Christmas tour schedule. Check their website for more details.
If you are a fan of that iconic sound of a big band/swing orchestra, classic vocals, and classic songs from “The Great American Songbook” then this show is for you as it is not often these days that you get the chance to hear them performed live by a 30 piece orchestra and lead vocalists.
Getting an orchestra this size onto the stage at the Queen’s Hall is a bit of a tight squeeze, but conductor/compere Mike Paul-Smith makes everything seem so relaxed with his very informal and light humoured style to the evening’s music. He is an excellent host and along the way clearly introduces every song with often very brief but informative backgrounds to their history. Just as importantly (for a reviewer anyhow) Mike also introduces clearly all the vocalists and at some point in the show, all of the band members.
Mike Paul-Smith obviously has a love and a passion not only for the big bands of yesteryear, but also for the writers and arrangers of the songs that they performed, and in his hands we are with the Down For The Count Orchestra’s performance reminded just how important that sometimes overlooked skill of the musical arranger is to songs that we all love to hear.
A lot of this evening’s music is from the 1950s but there is movement either side of that decade and two arrangers featured perhaps more than others here this evening, simply because their contributions to live and recorded music was so large and for many simply defined an era – Nelson Riddle and Billy May. This was also of course the heyday of iconic singers – Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jnr, to name only a few.
Swing into Christmas would not be complete without Christmas songs or festive re-arrangements of classics and of course Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. More festive classics included “Winter Wonderland” (originally released in 1934) and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
There was more to this show tonight than just Christmas songs - a saxophone tribute by Alex Western-King to Charlie Parker, a very good cover of "Mr Bojangles" (written by Jerry Jeff Walker) by Callum Gillies, and an enthusiastic band and multi vocalist rendition of "That's Life".
It is always a little bit unfair to select one person out from a show line-up like this, but Marvin Muoneké was with his wonderful rich and warm vocals one of the highlights of the evening for me and I suspect that we were only just getting a small taster of what he is capable of as a vocalist. Lydia Bell also has vocal and performance style that just suits these classic songs so well.
Good too to hear some Scottish musicians in the band line-up tonight and Konrad Wiszniewski is always good to hear on saxophone whatever style of music he is playing on the night.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
If you are a fan of that iconic sound of a big band/swing orchestra, classic vocals, and classic songs from “The Great American Songbook” then this show is for you as it is not often these days that you get the chance to hear them performed live by a 30 piece orchestra and lead vocalists.
Getting an orchestra this size onto the stage at the Queen’s Hall is a bit of a tight squeeze, but conductor/compere Mike Paul-Smith makes everything seem so relaxed with his very informal and light humoured style to the evening’s music. He is an excellent host and along the way clearly introduces every song with often very brief but informative backgrounds to their history. Just as importantly (for a reviewer anyhow) Mike also introduces clearly all the vocalists and at some point in the show, all of the band members.
Mike Paul-Smith obviously has a love and a passion not only for the big bands of yesteryear, but also for the writers and arrangers of the songs that they performed, and in his hands we are with the Down For The Count Orchestra’s performance reminded just how important that sometimes overlooked skill of the musical arranger is to songs that we all love to hear.
A lot of this evening’s music is from the 1950s but there is movement either side of that decade and two arrangers featured perhaps more than others here this evening, simply because their contributions to live and recorded music was so large and for many simply defined an era – Nelson Riddle and Billy May. This was also of course the heyday of iconic singers – Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jnr, to name only a few.
Swing into Christmas would not be complete without Christmas songs or festive re-arrangements of classics and of course Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. More festive classics included “Winter Wonderland” (originally released in 1934) and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
There was more to this show tonight than just Christmas songs - a saxophone tribute by Alex Western-King to Charlie Parker, a very good cover of "Mr Bojangles" (written by Jerry Jeff Walker) by Callum Gillies, and an enthusiastic band and multi vocalist rendition of "That's Life".
It is always a little bit unfair to select one person out from a show line-up like this, but Marvin Muoneké was with his wonderful rich and warm vocals one of the highlights of the evening for me and I suspect that we were only just getting a small taster of what he is capable of as a vocalist. Lydia Bell also has vocal and performance style that just suits these classic songs so well.
Good too to hear some Scottish musicians in the band line-up tonight and Konrad Wiszniewski is always good to hear on saxophone whatever style of music he is playing on the night.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com