Very Best of [Import]

The Temperance Seven | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 21, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Gold Imports
• ASIN: B0001CVBBY
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,146 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You're Driving Me Crazy

2. Charley My Boy

3. Pasadena

4. Sugar

5. Hard Hearted Hannah

6. Chili Bom Bom

7. Charleston

8. Black Bottom

9. Dinah

10. Kaiser Drag (Tiger Rag)

11. Tcp That Certain Party

12. My Blue Heaven

13. Sahara

14. Everybody Loves My Baby

15. Runnin' Wild

16. Mooche

17. Shake

18. Bye Bye Baby

19. Ain't She Sweet

20. Seven And Eleven

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Temperance Seven, January 7, 2009

By 

R. H. Bond "Brakie007" (Alameda, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

Great Album! If you like Dixieland or Trad Jazz you'll love this album..great music, and a wry sense of humor just under the surface.
All that was in the LP plus some bonus tracks.
No wonder it was so well done...the liner notes mention that George Martin produced it.

Brakie007

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Re-creations of '20's Jazz, September 2, 2007

By 

Alexander G. Lane - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

Originally released on 45 rpm singles in the early 1960's, the recordings gathered on this disc beautifully demonstrate the Temperance Seven's virtuosity, as well as the utter authenicity of their reproductions of 1920's jazz. Despite their name, the Temperance Seven usually employed eight instrumentalists -many of whom were responsible for multiple instruments- and, more often than not, the singer "Whispering" Paul McDowell, who delivered his curiously understated vocalizations through a megaphone. The four front-line players operated a wide assortment of brasses and woodwinds, including just about every size of saxophone and clarinet; Clifford Bevan's piano and Brian Innes's percussion tastefully colored and punctuated the rest of the band's music without lapsing into banal time-beating; and John Gieves Watson's banjo and Martin Fry's sousaphone contributed immensely to the band's "hot" sound; never will you hear a guitar or a string bass on this or any other recording made by the Temperance Seven's original lineup.
With the exceptions of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911), "You're Driving Me Crazy" (1930), "Bye Bye Baby" (1949) and "The Shake" (1962), all the numbers on this CD were composed in the 1920's, but even the four that weren't are given genuine '20's-style renditions. In a manner akin to such jazz-age bands as the Virginians, Waring's Pennsylvanians, and the California Ramblers, The Temperance Seven's style is intermediate between that of a hot dance-band and a "real" jazz ensemble: the band's large arsenal of reeds is frequently treated as a choir, but its constituent instruments are just as often singled out for solos; the melodies are always played or sung "straight" before being "jazzed", and are never distorted beyond recognition; also, most of the band's selections originated as popular songs -not as true Jazz compositions (the only exceptions on this disc are Nick LaRocca's "Tiger Rag", which is here labelled as "Kaiser Drag", and Duke Ellington's "The Mooche".)
If the foregoing suggests that the Temperance Seven was no more than a museum-grade replica of the typical '20's band, then even a cursory hearing of this disc will dispel such notions. Although their interpretations are completely uncontaminated by more recent popular styles (thank goodness!), the Temps have a brand of humor that is uniquely their own. From the deceptive coda of "Pasadena", to the orientalism of "Sahara", to the gramophone-like effects of "Alexander's Ragtime Band", this recording is full of quirks and surprises that do nothing to detract from the overall authenticity of the interpretations.
The recorded sound is clean and crisp, and the amount of music contained in this compilation approaches the modern compact disc's 80-minute limit. Although I might quibble with the omission of a few gems, such as "My Sweetie Went Away" and "Deep Henderson", from a "Very Best of" CD, the selection of tracks is excellent nonetheless, and I would strongly recommend this recording to anyone who loves high-quality, intelligent entertainment.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very best of the brew, July 3, 2007

By 

C. J. Whitaker "John Whitaker" (Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

A very representative selection from their repertoire, well-delivered and enjoyable. Their unique sound comes across very well; to be savoured along with a good single malt whisky.

John