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Mike Paul-Smith

Mike Paul-Smith

Musical Director ~ Pianist ~ Orchestrator & Arranger ~ Producer & Sound Engineer

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Posted on September 1, 2020

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123 Main Street
New York, NY 10001

Hours
Monday–Friday: 9:00AM–5:00PM
Saturday & Sunday: 11:00AM–3:00PM

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Contact

mike@downforthecount.co.uk

+44 (0) 7855 488 462

mikepaulsmithmusic
Picture of a happy Mike directing @downforthecount Picture of a happy Mike directing @downforthecountswingorchestra Big Band at @siyanltd last week! Feel very fortunate to have had these opportunities over the past few months thanks to @aceagrams - next up is Voices of Swing with the 30-piece Down for the Count Concert Orchestra on Sun 6 June!
Sound check time! It’s going to be a great show! Sound check time! It’s going to be a great show!
Feel very lucky that I get to spend my weekend in Feel very lucky that I get to spend my weekend in this awesome space! Tune in to the livestream at 7.30pm on all @downforthecountswingorchestra social media channels! @siyanltd
About to go live for a New Year’s Eve live strea About to go live for a New Year’s Eve live stream! Head over to Down for the Counts Facebook or YouTube channel now and let’s say good riddance to 2020! #livestream
A picture of a very happy Mike conducting the Down A picture of a very happy Mike conducting the Down for the Count Concert Orchestra at @cadoganhall yesterday - feeling very lucky to share the stage with such amazing musicians, and also very grateful that we get to perform the show in public on Thursday 17th December! There are just 30 tickets left, and they are available now from the Cadogan Hall website - we’d love to see you there for some Christmas cheer and to say good riddance to 2020! 📷 @simon_joyner
Can’t wait for a day of rehearsals conducting @d Can’t wait for a day of rehearsals conducting @downforthecountswingorchestra at @cadoganhall
Our new Christmas album SWING INTO CHRISTMAS is av Our new Christmas album SWING INTO CHRISTMAS is available now for pre-order on our Bandcamp store - and today (Fri 6th Nov) Bandcamp waive their fees in support musicians at this difficult time. https://downforthecountswingorchestra.bandcamp.com/ When you pre-order our album, you'll instantly receive a download of 3 of our favourite tracks (including two non-festive ones!) and your CD will arrive in the post within a few days. If you just want a download of the album, and not a CD, you can pre-order today and you'll receive the 3 advance tracks immediately; you'll receive the final 12 tracks on 1st December. We can't tell you how proud we are of this album. It features the largest ever Down for the Count ensemble - featuring 28 musicians, including the marvellous string players from City String Ensemble, recorded at the The Cold Stores in Kent this September. We really hope you enjoy it! @citystringensemble @thecoldstores @castlemansings
Little test of a new showreel for the band, let me Little test of a new showreel for the band, let me know what you think!
We’re releasing a new video on Friday! Tune in t We’re releasing a new video on Friday! Tune in to @downforthecountswingorchestra on Facebook at 4pm to watch it (we’ll post it to Instagram shortly afterwards). On Friday we were meant to be celebrating our 15th Birthday at London’s @100clublondon so we thought this would be the next best thing! @sophie_yasmin @citystringensemble
Like many of you, we've been shocked and saddened Like many of you, we've been shocked and saddened at recent events in America. We've tried to write down a few of our thoughts but all the words we come up seem insufficient - so we're taking a moment to stop, think, listen, and reflect on what actions we, as a band and individuals, can do to help the Black Lives Matter cause. In response to the murders of George Floyd and others, two black musicians have created an initiative called "The Show Must Be Paused" which we'll be taking part in on Tuesday 2nd June - in their words, it's "a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community". Of course this is only a very small gesture, and it's meaningless if people the world over don't follow it up with their actions - so we're committing to continually educate ourselves, keep the conversation going, and reflect on our societal and individual actions - we realise there is a lot of work to be done for us all. We'd really encourage you to read more about the Show Must Be Paused initiative and wider cause at www.theshowmustbepaused.com and https://m4bl.org/ #theshowmustbepaused
We've been busy and, along with our friends @citys We've been busy and, along with our friends @citystringensemble have recorded a WHOLE EP in lockdown! On Friday 5th June we'll be releasing our EP, "LOCKDOWN FOR THE COUNT", featuring 5 songs recorded completely in isolation (including one transatlantic collaboration, and lots of cake....) Any profits from sales of the album will be split between the musicians involved and our nominated charity @mindcharity - whose work we feel is particularly important at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic expected to have a detrimental impact on the mental health of so many. The EP will initially be available to download on @bandcamp priced £5 (however on Bandcamp you can choose to pay more if you want - and of course, any extra funds will mean we can give more money to the charity). A few weeks later the EP will also be available to stream or download on Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify; we may make physical copies if there is enough demand for them but at the moment we think it will be online only. Look out for the launch next Friday - we can't wait to share it with you!
Figured I might as well use social distancing time Figured I might as well use social distancing time productively - so here I am getting some long overdue classical piano practice and learning the first of the 24 Debussy Preludes. I’m sort of hoping I don’t have time to learn all 24...... #socialdistancing #stayhome #stayathome #piano #pianist #pianistsofinstagram #nhsappreciation
I’m thrilled to be back at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz I’m thrilled to be back at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club @officialronnies in April with @downforthecountswingorchestra - there are just a few tickets left, you can purchase them now on the venue website! Photo courtesy of the wonderful @benjamin_mckee
Recently I’ve been co-producing and playing pian Recently I’ve been co-producing and playing piano and Rhodes on some great original material written by @amycatwalton - we’ll be playing it at @pizzaexpresslive Chelsea this Sunday and it would be great to see some friendly faces in the audience - message me for discounted tickets!
Another pic from Sunday’s Concert Orchestra reco Another pic from Sunday’s Concert Orchestra recording session from the amazing @johnrixon1234 - still buzzing after such an amazing day with so many talented musicians! @thecoldstores
My view yesterday from the conductors podium at @t My view yesterday from the conductors podium at @thecoldstores - it was a huge pleasure directing the 25 amazing musicians of the @downforthecountswingorchestra and working with the incredibly talented @benny_bopper @_jackchilds_ and @johnrixon1234 - can’t wait to share some great new versions of old songs with you very soon!
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