The Temperance Seven- 21 Years On

dscn5290-800x775This was one dollar.  I knew of the band and actually had a compilation CD so I was quite keen to post this eventually.  The more I think about it, this may have been 80 cents. As a side note, I saw the Squirrel Nut Zippers on Friday at the Miller Outdoor Theater.  If you are not from Houston, then you probably not know that that would mean a free show.  It was pretty good.  I bring it up because it is the same kind of music more or less.  Anyway, the band was good, a bit better than this band but not as good as the White Ghost Shivers when they had their giant banjo player. Also the US based trad jazz seems to have a harder edge then the British based.

by Dezo Hoffmann, modern bromide print, 1961

The Temperance Seven were a British band specializing in 1920’s traditonal jazz.  Founded by Paul McDowell, Philip Harrison, and Brian Innes, the band eventually ballooned into a nine piece, moving towards the same lines as the Alberts or the Bonzo Doo-Dah Dog Band.  They scored a #1 hit with “You’re Driving Me Crazy”, which incidentally was the first #1 George Martin produced.

Angry letter from the Late Paul McDowell to the Guardian

They also backed Peter Sellers on a single before that.  Trad Jazz had started to become popular in the early 60’s.  It was during this time, they appeared in the film, It’s Trad, Dad.  This is how I became aware of them.

That Trad sound craze was short lasted as Beatlemania soon gripped the world.  The band’s core started to fade.  However, as both band leaders and members changed, the band continued with renewed success in places such as Hong Kong and Bahrain. A form of the band is still around or it least they were in 2015.

Link to Band’s Web Page

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This album, released in 1976, seems to be a retrospective collection of songs which I believe were re-recorded for this effort.  It also includes a song recorded on a British Airways Concorde flight.   The songs are ok.  It is pretty much your straight out trad jazz.  I am really unsure of what the lineup for this record looked like.  I guess that should not really matter.

For a sample, I decided to go with “Lime House Blues” and from the Concorde recording, “Mach II March”.temps

If it was not for the fact this was a dollar, I might give a different review, but since it was so cheap, I have to give this a satisfactory rating. Two dollars would have been a different story.

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