Down for the Count Face the Music

Swing band ‘Down for the Count’ released a brand-new video a few days ago featuring twenty-six musicians, all filmed in their homes, as a tribute to all key workers who are keeping the UK moving right now. Their take on ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’ proved to be a viral smash with over 30,000 Facebook views already. 
 
As Mike the band leader explains: “We're all in awe of what our key workers are doing at the moment, particularly our NHS staff, and we wanted to do something to show our appreciation of them. It’s so inspiring how healthcare workers carry on doing such a difficult job day after day, and we thought that the song “Let's Face the Music and Dance” epitomises that attitude perfectly. Also, music and dance both have the ability to lift people’s spirits. This is such a difficult time for everyone – including for us as musicians, unsure when we’re going to be able to play together again – so we wanted to do something positive to bring a little joy into people’s lives. 
 
“The video is a collaboration between Down for the Count, and our friends City String Ensemble – their leader, Sophie Poteratchi, and I came up with the idea. It features musicians from all over England and Scotland – including an NHS doctor from Edinburgh – who recorded the song separately from their own homes. 
 
“Once we had chosen the song, I transcribed the 26 orchestral parts from the original Billy May arrangement, written for Nat ‘King’ Cole in the early 1960s, and sent them round to all the musicians who individually recorded their separate parts at home, whilst listening to just the drums and bass in their headphones. Some of the musicians have home recording equipment, but most of them just recorded the audio on their phones and sent it back to me to mix together. 
 
“Sophie and I also asked everyone to film themselves playing – the only instruction was “put on your concert dress and have fun” – everyone dusted down their tuxedos and ballgowns, propped up their phone on piles of books, and imagined they were at a concert. Everyone had their own little individual take on the “have fun” message and it was great to see what everyone came up with (especially when they had bars of rest – everything from quickstepping around the living room to cooking cauliflower soup!). Sophie then watched over 4 hours of footage from the individual musicians, and somehow, over the course of a week, condensed it all down into one 3 minute video. 
 
“It’s amazing how all this could be achieved from the comfort of our own homes in keeping with the Stay Home guidelines. We wanted to demonstrate how you can still achieve something and collaborate with others without having to leave your home, all the while helping to protect the NHS and raising money for NHS Charities Together. It’s amazing how dressing up, donning our suits and best dresses and playing one of favourite swing tunes has got us all feeling more positive than we had in weeks. We wanted to share that feeling with other music fans and also make people smile and laugh in the process - we hope this video goes some way to lifting peoples’ spirits and raises money for a great cause too.” 
 
Enjoy the video and many more on the Brass Band World MEDIA sharing platform.

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