Biography zez confrey

Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (3 April 1895 – 22 November 1971) was an American composer and performer of novelty piano and jazz music.
Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey was born in Peru, Illinois on April 3rd, 1895 - at the dawn of the ragtime era.
Zez Confrey, pianist-composer and for many years leader of his own dance orchestra, has just signed an exclusive contract with the Irving Berlin Standard Music.

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Zez Confrey (1895 - 1971)

Edward Elzear “Zez” Confrey was a musical phenomenon. Precocious, immensely talented, with an absolutely natural ability at the keyboard, he became a major celebrity after publishing in 1921 his evocative and rhythmically intricate masterpiece, Kitten on the Keys. Two years later his recordings were available on both the Brunswick and Victor Records labels, as well as on many piano rolls.

Confrey was born on 3 April 1895, in Peru, Illinois. He was the youngest of five children. His eldest brother, Jim, played seven different musical instruments, including the piano. At four, Zez showed enormous ability when he picked out on the piano the same piece his eldest brother was studying. His parents recognised the budding talent and soon engaged a teacher to nurture Zez’s musical gifts. He played in and conducted his own orchestra while attending high school. After graduation, he continued his musical education at the famous Chicago Musical College (which was run by the inimitable Florenz Ziegfeld, Sr.), where his teachers included Jesse

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Zez Confrey

Edward Elzear “Zez” Confrey was born in Peru, Illinois, on April 3, 1895. Zez grew up in a musical household in which his older brother, James, was proficient on a number of instruments. When Zez, at age four, began to play his brother’s piano lessons by ear, his parents realized he was a prodigy and found a teacher for him.

Zez Confrey led an orchestra while still in high school, and thereafter matriculated at the Chicago Musical College. While at college, he studied the time-honored classics as well as the more modern French composers, Debussy and Ravel, whose music fascinated him.

He enlisted in the Navy during World War One, and performed in the revue Leave It To Sailors. He shared the stage with a violinist named Ben K. Benny, whom the world would later know as comedian Jack Benny.

In 1921, Zez Confrey wrote the composition that would make him famous, “Kitten on the Keys.” He claimed to have been inspired by the sound of a cat walking across his grandmother’s piano late at night, but the quirky and engaging rhythm of the piece caused a sensation. Publi

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Zez Confrey

American composer and pianist (1895–1971)

"Zez" redirects here. For the scheme which restricts or charges non-electric vehicles, see zero-emission zone.

Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (3 April 1895 – 22 November 1971)^[1] was an American composer and performer of novelty piano and jazz music. His most noted works were "Kitten on the Keys" and "Dizzy Fingers." Studying at the Chicago Musical College and becoming enthralled by French impressionists played a critical role in how he composed and performed music.^[2]

Early life and education

Confrey was born in Peru, Illinois,^[1] the youngest child of Thomas and Margaret Confrey. Aspiring to be a concert pianist, he attended Chicago Musical College and studied with private teachers. He later abandoned that idea for composing, encouraged by his oldest brother, James J. Confrey, an organist.^[3] By 1916 he was a staff pianist for Witmarks in Chicago. He also enlisted in the US Navy in 1917.^{[citation needed]}

Career

After World War I, Confrey became a pi