Wally Rose

Wally Rose achieved his greatest renown through the 1941 recording of “Black and White Rag” with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, among the earliest ragtime sides ever committed to disc and a key catalyst for a brief resurgence of interest in the style. A central figure on the San Francisco jazz circuit throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he remained a fixture in Lu Watters’ Yerba Buena Jazz Band for the group’s full lifespan from 1939 to 1950, after which he joined Bob Scobey in 1951 and Turk Murphy from 1952 to 1954 before shifting primarily to solo piano work. As a bandleader he cut sessions for Jazz Man between 1941 and 1942, produced multiple dates for Good Time Jazz that included a 1958 LP, appeared on Columbia, and returned to the studio for a solo album on Stomp Off in 1982—the first time he had led a date in twenty-four years. Until his death in early 1997, Rose continued to serve as an influential presence for younger players devoted to the Dixieland tradition.