Fairhall's title conveys his affection for jazz piano's longest-gone spirits. This follow-up to his similarly themed, live group recording The Imaginary Delta (2012) includes rare evocations of Scott Joplin and the delicate stride beauty of the mighty Fats Waller. Fairhall's MO is to play this music as if it's just come into being, bringing out the bop and free jazz implications of stride, boogie and ragtime, and their present potential. Monk did much of this, too, and he and Keith Tippett are also referenced. Again recorded live, Friendly Ghosts strips the cracked and peeling layers of over-familiarity from this primal music. Joplin's 1910 ‘Piano Rag’ could be an out-of-sync piano roll, spilling and crumpling in a juke-joint corner, helplessly prophesying avant-garde futures while retaining its ragtime warmth. Fairhall has also absorbed his sources' entertainer's ethic, as tempi slur, fracture and giddily tumble in a Chaplin-esque dance. As stride and trad scenes form from the latest jazz course graduates, Fairhall isn't alone in going back to this future. This resonant album suggests he's dived deepest.