Wally Rose - Whippin’ the Keys

Delmark

Ragtime revivals are reliably recurrent events in the chronology of jazz. The most recent renaissance arrived under the auspices of Chicagoan Reginald Robinson, whose MacArthur “genius” coup a few years ago raised a few eyebrows, not the least because of the seemingly antiquated nature of his chosen musical vernacular. Pianist Wally Rose predates him in the capacity of reparatory revivalist/interpreter by a good six decades. Rose was a member of the Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz band. He also took part in the splinter groups founded by band mates Bob Scobey and Turk Murphy in the wake of Yerba’s initial demise. The two solo albums coupled on this Delmark reissue date from twenty years after those associations and were originally released on the specialty Blackbird label.

Rose devours a total of 21 tunes, all of them variations on the venerable rag form with syncopated rhythms and jaunty genteel melodies working in familiar congruence. Exotically tagged tracks like “The Lion Tamer Rag” and “Jamaica Jinger Rag” vie with more conventionally christened pieces, among them “Ragtime Dance” and “Scott Joplin’s New Rag”. The reliance on rags makes the music innately circumscriptive and programmatic variety suffers from the relative parity of tempo and design. Rose combats any encroaching malaise through the easy ardor expounded in his performances. His fingers dance and cavort, expressing both elegance and vitality in their repeated interlocking runs up and down the keyboard. Modern recording technology captures each stair-stepping dash and somersaulting aside with clarity and immediacy. Rose’s discography numbers well over one hundred records, but these solitary sides no doubt retain a special slot within that relative surplus. The playful slang of the album title accurately reflects the high energy, low calorie approach.

~ Derek Taylor