Sad News for 'Ragtime Music'
By Douglas Henderson
The message in Digest 960107 explains 'why' I didn't get a card or annual Yuletime message from pianist Wally Rose (born Walter Lewis Rosa) this year.
I am happy to learn that my friend and pianist-musicologist Peter Mintun is assisting with Wally's affairs, and my association with Peter goes back to the very essence of his equally-celebrated performance career.
Those who have been in touch with me - or have played my ARTCRAFT Rolls - know that I was probably Wally's "biggest fan", having been involved with him musically and socially back to the days of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band - that uptempo 'Dixieland' renaissance group which appeared at Hambone Kelly's on San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, only a few blocks from my home.
Later, when I started perforating music rolls in the early '50s, he provided me with Joplin, Scott, Lamb and other Ragtime scores, this being BEFORE the era of the available 'Xerox'Ö machines. When I struck out for the East Coast in '60, and started working at Imperial Industrial Co. (QRS) with Max Kortlander and J. L. Cook, one of the first things I did was create a "Pete Wendling 'style'" Ragtime roll - BULL DOG RAG - and dedicated it to him. Not having a Pianola, Wally wrote back shortly thereafter that he took it to Sherman & Clay at Stockton & Kearny Streets in San Francisco, and 'tried it out' on one of the Hardman Duo player consoles, then a 'new' instrument on the market.
Years later he wrote a piece of music for my roll business, entitled VIGNETTE - A Musical Novelty, something of a gentle + rough number which combined the Arndt-style elements with the Confrey-like variations in the Trio. Proofing for the correct phrases took place on the 'phone as I used the "instant replay" nature of perforating the Master in the Studio, and simply played what was in-progress at the time. The completed roll (88-Note and Duo-Art) of VIGNETTE was ready for Sedalia's Joplin Festival in '89, which is where I used to maintain a booth in the Liberty Theatre lobby; Wally premiered it on the stage there, during the Festival ... and it was also featured on my Cassette tapes (SEDALIA SERENADE) in the Duo-Art edition.
When my mother was dying in the Fall of '95, Lois and I drove out to California ... and took a sideline trip to Walnut Creek to visit Wally. It was a short meeting, since he had a 'last-minute' engagement at the Bohemian Club in S.F. that same day -- but, I'm glad I "made the time" to see him during what will probably be the final opportunity.
We had a 'back-and-forth' relationship that transcended music. When rock-and-roll devastated the jazz and Ragtime scene in area during the '60s, and things looke 'dismal' for a talented pianist ... I had many chances to bolster his ego, with suggestions that the pendulum would swing the other way, as it did later on with the Ragtime Festivals that began to appear in the '70s. Later, when my roll business was having a hard time getting started (since so many people still "believed in the MYTH of 'recording artists' on rolls" in that naive time), he event 'donated' some money to keep the ARTCRAFT 'cash flow' going.
Lois had the opportunity to meet him on several occasions in recent years, in Missouri and California. She had heard me talk about him and play his records (which never FULLY captured his performance 'aura' in my opinion - and his).
Wally and I also went to old movies together many, many times ... sharing the same interests there, also. HE had a PHOTOGRAPHIC memory and could recite what the credits were on some Vitaphone picture and usually the copyright dates for the music. Many were the times we'd settle a discussion for the 'year' of a musical by his consulting a book on the subject: I had the YEAR from the sheet music or player roll label and he had the YEAR from the date of the theatre performance. (Often it was a case of 1927 vs. 1928 if the production appeared on the 'cusp' of the years!)
The music world never knew a kinder or more gentle person, who - in his prime - possessed a distinctive technique, one which "kept the beat", played the correct notes and had NO "note clusters" at the same dynamic (a 'sin' for MOST old music rolls and many pianists of our time). While considered a "ragtimer" (a word he NEVER used around me) his REAL interest was Chopin, old musicals, Viennese operettas and all forms of phrased 'romantic' music. I was once staying with him when he gave Chopin lessons to an adult student on his Steinway "B" ... and he'd get the budding artist to play the phrases-within-phrases (within-phrases etc.) - - - an artistic insight WELL BEYOND many concert pianists I knew.
At one time he was going to "make rolls" for a "hand-played" setup in Turlock CA, where my ARTCRAFT titles are duplicated today. I stopped him, knowing he had a 'sense of history', and said, "People will BLAME YOU for the erratic rhytyhm and sloppy staccato." Another artist (who won't be mentioned here) then did a series of - guess what? - sloppy and muddy rolls, which he told me PERSONALLY he can't stand to hear. (I had the privilege, at his request, of making 2 of the 2nd composer's compositions with my 'Interpretive Arranging' process - admittedly not a "recording" but definitely CLOSE to the pianist's performance traits.) How did I get Wally to "cancel" that appointment for making jerky 'hand-played' rolls? I brought him a copy of an Atlantic Magazine article, about 1951, which called Debussy a "cocktail pianist" - the article being based on those artrocious (equally erratic) Welte-Mignon 'reproducing' rolls being produced for German LP's of the period.
Thanks to me, Wally 'leaves' the keyboard with his sparkling AUDIO recordings ... and several of my rolls "cut in his style" (while promoted as an 'alternative performance medium', which they are). Happily, there are NO 'hand-played' music roll travesties of his playing to be presented in the future.
One of the 'live' recordings I treasure is one played by Robbie Rhodes at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, CA ... Wally's composition: WEDDING CAKE WALK. Darrell Woodruff in Glendale CA has been sending me tapes of the OTMH for years, and many of these are musically-priceless performances to me - especially now.
My father used to drop in on Wally at Gold Street and the various locations where he appeared during his San Francisco Days. "Oh, the dairy man," he'd say, since my father worked on Battery Street, not far away, at the Golden State Dairy Co., later Foremost.
My memory probably wouldn't equal his, but it does give me "vivid" images of times gone by ... and a friendship that approached 50 years.
He's a friend and an artist whom I'll 'never' forget.
Regards, Douglas
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(Message sent Wed 8 Jan 1997, 22:28:23 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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