I reviewed a very special album from the UK-based Down for the Count a few months ago. They are a jazz collective, something like James Reese Europe’s Clef Club, with 20 musicians listed on the website. The group can fit any event from trio to BIG band and they have subgroups with different specialties and sounds. On their albums though it is usually a band of roughly nine instrumentalists with several vocalists throughout.
The group usually transcribes vintage arrangements, but for their Christmas record the band’s conductor Mike Paul-Smith crafted new ones. The group was excited to expand to an even larger size for this record, and then add the City String Ensemble on top of that for a truly big Christmas sound. The strings were kept on for a non-Christmas record that followed this 2020 release.
An events band is going to have some experience with Christmas tunes, and this album is both pleasing and professional. But don’t let those dry words through you off, as I concluded while reviewing their recent release of violin compositions from the grandparent of one of their members I think that when they get into the studio they are creating for themselves. An example is the inclusion of “Angel,” an Aretha Franklin song that a member fell in love with. As well done as it is, it feels oddly placed being a bit outside of the solid jazz that fills the rest of the album, and not
