Thu 19 June 2025 7:30pm

Down for the Count Orchestra

at The Stoller Hall, Manchester

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£42.50

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What's On / Manchester / Music

Please note: Info provided by the Event Organiser

oin the 30-piece?Down for the Count Swing Orchestra?for a celebration of one of the most iconic figures in show-business history – the incomparable Sammy Davis Jr. – in his centenary year.

Enjoy timeless classics such as?‘Birth of the Blues’,?‘What Kind of Fool Am?I’,?‘Me and My Shadow’?and of course?‘Mr. Bojangles’, brought back to life by the instrumentalists and vocalists of the sensational Down for the Count Swing Orchestra – one of the few UK jazz ensembles to feature a string section.

This is not a tribute show, but rather?a celebration of Sammy Davis Jr.’s life and music. Compèred by musical director and conductor Mike Paul-Smith, the show will feature anecdotes about Sammy Davis’ life, original arrangements of some of?Sammy Davis Jr’s hits, and also the music of some of his contemporaries including?Frank Sinatra,?Dean Martin?and?Sarah Vaughan.

The Down for the Count Swing Orchestra is one of the UK’s leading swing ensembles with performance credits including Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, the London Jazz Festival, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Twinwood Festival. Join them for this one-of-a-kind celebration of a true musical legend in 2025.

Down for the Count Orchestra

The Down for the Count Orchestra is a vintage orchestra which performs the music of Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Nat 'King' Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and many more. The Down for the Count Orchestra is our largest line-up, and is an expanded version of our All-Stars Band - featuring a larger horn and rhythm section, and a luscious string section. The result has been described by DownBeat magazine as "a sonic ride back to the sounds of Capitol Studios in the 1950s" - and a recent review of our tour said "you won't find a better interpretation of these golden tunes anywhere in the UK right now" (Stage Reviews). The Orchestra performs faithful transcriptions of some of the greatest hits of the Swing Era, taking its main inspiration from the Capitol Studios recordings that bought Frank Sinatra, Nat 'King' Cole and Peggy Lee to worldwide fame, and the influential Ella Fitzgerald "Songbook" sessions, masterminded by Norman Granz. Our show also explores the various ways jazz and swing musicians have involved strings in their music - so you might see and hear excerpts from the Charlie Parker With Strings albums, or recreations of classic tunes from the Tommy Dorsey or Harry James big bands of the 1940s (both of which involved strings). We also breathe new life into jazz standards, with original arrangements and orchestrations written by our principal conductor Mike Paul-Smith and associate musical director Simon Joyner. Above all, every song is performed with love and respect for the original artists, and the collective friendship of the musicians on stage rubs off on audiences who return to see the Orchestra over and over again.

See Down for the Count Orchestra tour dates