Zez Confrey

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Zez Confrey (with gramophone early 1920s)

Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (born April 3, 1895 in Peru (Illinois) , † November 22, 1971 in Lakewood , New Jersey ) was an American composer and interpreter of ragtime and piano music of the novelty style. He has written more than a hundred works for piano, but also miniature operas and songs, and recorded numerous works on piano rolls and records .

life and work

Confrey received private piano lessons and studied at the Chicago Musical College , where he became acquainted with the work of the French Impressionists . Their harmonious conception shaped his own interpretations and compositions, to which his brother James J. Confrey, the organist, encouraged him. In 1915 he worked as a demonstration pianist in Harry von Tilzer's Chicago store.

After completing his military service in World War I , he was employed as a pianist and arranger by the QRS Piano Roll Company. One of his first piano recordings was his composition The Pets . A stay in his grandmother's house, during which he heard a cat run over the piano, inspired his novelty rag Kitten on the Keys , which was published in 1921 (and which he also recorded on the same year). The piece, in which he asked the performers to play cluster , sold more than a million copies and influenced other composers.

Confrey also had great success in the following years with his compositions Stumbling (1921), You Tell 'Em Ivories (1921), Coaxing the Piano (1922), Dizzy Fingers (1923) and Nickel in the Slot (1923). He also appeared publicly as a pianist: for example, he presented his own works alongside George Gershwin at the legendary concert Experiment in Modern Music , which took place on February 12, 1924 in the Aeolian Hall . In the same year he switched to the AMPICO Company as a pianist, which sold piano rolls for instruments from Mason & Hamlin and Chickering . In the 1930s he increasingly wrote for jazz and entertainment orchestras. In the last years of his life he suffered from Parkinson's disease .

Catalog raisonné

For piano unless otherwise stated.

  • My Pet (1921)
  • Kitten on the Keys (1921)
  • You Tell 'em Ivories (1921)
  • Poor Buttermilk (1921)
  • Greenwich Witch (1921)
  • Stumbling (1922)
  • Coaxing the Piano (1922)
  • Dumbell (1922)
  • Tricks (1922)
  • By the Saphire Sea - Lied (1922)
  • Nickel in the Slot (1923)
  • Dizzy Fingers (1923)
  • Three Little Oddities (1923) (for piano or violin and piano)
    • impromptu
    • Romanza
    • Novelette
  • African Suite (1924)
    • High hatin
    • Kinda Careless
    • Mississippi Shivers
  • Anticipation (1924)
  • Charleston Chuckles (1925)
  • Fantasy - Jazz Arrangement (1925)
  • Humorestless (1925)
  • Flower Song (1925)
  • Spring Song (1925)
  • Home Sweet Home (1925)
  • Melody in F (1925)
  • Reverie (1925)
  • Fantasy - Classical (1926)
  • Jay Walk (1927)
  • Jack in the Box (1927)
  • Walse Mirage (1927)
  • Sparkling Waters (1928)
  • Concert Etude (1929)
  • Heaven's Garden (1931)
  • Moods of a New Yorker (1932)
  • Buffoon (1932)
  • Champagne (1932)
  • Desert Dance (1932)
  • In the South of France (1932)
  • Indian Prayer (1932)
  • Phantom Cadets (1932)
  • Wistfullness (1932)
  • Grandfather's Clock (1933)
  • Sittin 'on a Log Pettin' My Dog (1933)
  • Smart Alec (1933)
  • Giddy Ditty (1935)
  • Rhythm Venture (1935)
  • Arabian Maid (1935)
  • A Heart Like the Ocean (1935)
  • Lullaby from Mars (1935)
  • Mouses' Hooves (1935)
  • Tin Pan Symphony (1935)
  • The Birds' Carnival (1935)
  • Blue Tornado (1935)
  • Rag Doll Dimples (1935)
  • Audacity (1936)
  • Meandering (1936)
  • Tap Dance of the Chimes (1936)
  • Ultra-Ultra (1936)
  • Oriental Fantasy (1936)
  • Home-Run on the Keys (1936)
  • Midsummer's Nightmare (1936)
  • Motif du concert (1936)
  • Wise Cracker Suite (1936)
    • Yokel Opus
    • Mighty Lackawanna
    • The Sheriff's Lament
  • Sugar Dance (1936)
  • Sunshine from the Fingers (1936)
  • Sports Model Encore (1937)
  • The Hobble De Hoy (1938)
  • Della Robbia (1938)
  • That Old Piano Roll Band (1943)
  • Dancing Shadow (1944)
  • Elihu's Harmonica (1944)
  • Parade of the Jumping Beans (1944)
  • Pickle Pepper Polka (1944)
  • Tune For Mademoiselle (1944)
  • Amazonia (1945)
  • Butterfly (1945)
  • Flutter By, Butterfly (1945)
  • Rag Doll Carnival (1945)
  • Four Candy Pieces (1949)
  • Song of Thanksgiving (1952)
  • Four Circus Pieces (1959)
  • Fourth Dimension (1959)

Discographic notes

  • Zez Confrey: Creator of the Novelty Rag , Zez Confrey (1976)
  • The Dancing Twenties , Various Artists (1976)
  • The Piano Roll Artistry of Zez Confrey , Zez Confrey (1982)

literature

  • Jasen & Tichenor Rags and Ragtime , Dover 1978.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Zez Confrey, Zez Confrey's Modern Course in Novelty Piano Playing (New York: Jack Mills, 1923), p. 4
  2. ↑ a b Thedeadrockstarsclub.com
  3. ↑ “Be sure to climb the octaves up the part that is supposed to sound like a cat is jumping down the keyboard. In other words, make a fist when imitating the cat walking up and down, otherwise it won't sound real. "Zit. according to Gert Mattenklott Aesthetic experience under the sign of the dissolution of boundaries of the arts: Epistemic, aesthetic and religious forms of experience in comparison. Hamburg 2004, p. 166
  4. ↑ In 1927 Erwin Schulhoff published his Toccata sur le Shimmy "Kitten on the Keys".
  5. ^ Paul Du Noyer: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music . Flame Tree Publishing, Fulham, London 2003, ISBN 1-904041-96-5 , p. 123.
  6. ↑ Catalog of works by Zez Confrey ( memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at www.grainger.de.
personal data
SURNAME Confrey, Zez
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Confrey, Edward Elzear (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer and interpreter of ragtime
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Peru (Illinois)
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1971
Place of death Lakewood (New Jersey)