A Tribute To Fats Waller & His Music
Geoff Cole & His Hot Five
One Never Knows DO ONE?

Recorded over 2-3 February 1999 at the Dave Bennett Studio England.
Mastering Dave Bennett, Geoff Cole, Big Bill Bissonnette also liner notes.
Jazz Crusade JCCD-3047 ddd time 72 minutes.
Reviewed by KJR on beta Windows 2000 Professional sound recorder. IBM Aptiva Computer.

It is not really as strange as it seems, certainly not to Fats Waller fans, except say, for blue turning grey to mention Black & Blue but why, for with lyricists Edgar Dowell and J.J.Johnson, and Fats with Andy Razaf and Spencer Williams as composers of it, the 17 tracks album is but a small part of the complete Thomas "Fats" Waller collection.

To some people, except say, for one or two songs like Ain't Misbehavin' they will perhaps say, but one never knows, does one, Ain't Never Heard Of Such Stuff ? but yes, to those seventeen tunes, one can say, that all are credited to Fats.

The front line of the Geoff Cole & his Hot Five group has no lead trumpeter and so pianist Pat Hawes takes on a prominent Fats Waller role, so giving an authentic shine to good effect on this compact disc of Waller tunes.

Clarinettist Tony Pyke and trombonist Geoff Cole have built up over the years a wonderful musical nous and understanding of the fine arts of each other's instrumentational abilities, fashioned by their long standing stretch under the leadership or tutelary of Ken Colyer at the height of his fame. During that period, I believe they produced a very nice arranged composition named Grace and Beauty which I have never heard of for many a year. The point I'm making here is, that the frontline lead does not come from one nor the other of the two, but from the other and one of them, with the same understanding as a George Masso, Al Klink call and response, soloist, accompanistic routine, as heard coming from them in their early days of playing Eddie Condon's in New York, to which I can relate and see portrayed here within this Hot Five.

To their credit, Geoff and his Hot Five have produced a CD with good sound quality, and is very much in keeping in mind, with the Fats Waller relaxed approach side to his music, that is outwith the Waller hilarity, play-acting, comic side of his personality, who in a short 39 years span of life, was encouraged more for the entertainment of others, rather than to play for others for the appreciation of his music. As per the aforementioned, I do not see the need to make specific reference to any particular one of those 17 numbers, so in not doing so, I will leave judgment up to listeners themselves, to whom, I can say with near certainty, that they will not be disappointed.

A pupil of James P Johnson, composer in 1923 of Broadway musical, Runnin' Wild which includes songs Old Fashioned Love and The Charleston, and approximately four years later a piano rhapsody with stride jazz elements in it, which was orchestrated and performed in Carnegie Hall, and that pupil was none other than 18 year old Thomas Waller as soloist.

Not only is this CD a very fine tribute to Fats Waller, but it is a tribute of compassion and reverence which I'm sure Fats would have appreciated. This Hot Five group that is backing pianist Pat Hawes, who in effect, is playing in the background, really does outshine many of the Fats Waller recordings' small backing groups, of which, Fats in effect, comes over in voice as being those groups alone overall.

Just S'Posin' I was to say without anyone near to Hold My Hand to Cross Patch with that enigma, it would really be a Sweet Thing if a sequel to this album appeared, not only with the same emphasis, but with enhanced direction towards devout solemnity, and to play high quality renditions of the music of Thomas "Fats" Waller, without detracting from his warm personality, for example, the use of dubbed Waller voice quotes was and is effective.

With reverential tone of voice, who is that talkin' around here, and I'll add, that my feet's not too big, for if such a new recording by the Geoff Cole and his Hot Five group was to arise, it surely would be a dignified seminal work of art opening to the 2000 year millennium, and an ongoing tribute to Fats by these fine musicians of England, here on this CD well proven to handle it.