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