Kitten On The Keys
Zez Confrey
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Browse piano sheets by Zez Confrey on Zen Virtual Piano. Zez Confrey, whose full name was Edward Elzear Confrey, was born in Peru, Illinois, the youngest child of Thomas and Margaret Confrey. He began to play piano at the age of four, and AllMusic notes that he was already leading his own dance band in high school. Aspiring to be a concert pianist, he attended Chicago Musical College and studied with private teachers. At the college, AllMusic adds, he fell for the French Impressionists; their "modernistic" sense of harmony was to be important in his composing and piano work. Leading a dance band in high school, beside the harmony of the French Impressionists, may point to popular and classical strands in his training. Confrey's first professional job, in 1915, was as a music demonstrator for Harry von Tilzer's company in Chicago, where he published his first songs. After leaving the Navy, he took a job at the QRS piano-roll company, working as a pianist and an editor of rolls. AllMusic says he made nearly 200 piano rolls in all, and edited most of them himself. AllMusic credits Confrey with launching novelty ragtime single-handedly, through "My Pet", an original number that was among his earliest QRS rolls. A job as a music demonstrator in Chicago, beside study at Chicago Musical College, may point to Chicago as a place that recurs in his career. "Kitten on the Keys" was a novelty piano solo that Confrey wrote in 1921. Its inspiration was his grandmother's cat, which he heard walking across her piano keyboard. According to AllMusic, sheet-music sales passed a million copies. The Experiment in Modern Music concert at Aeolian Hall, where Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was premiered, was a historic event, and on February 12, 1924, Confrey played in it as a soloist with billing above George Gershwin. A million sheet-music copies, beside a billing above Gershwin, may hint at two kinds of public notice, in sales and on stage. A grandmother's piano in the story of Kitten on the Keys, beside Confrey beginning piano at the age of four, may suggest that the piano appears both in his earliest years and in the origin of his 1921 solo. AllMusic writes that Confrey did not take making recordings nearly as seriously as making rolls and publishing sheet music. In one case, pianist Phil Ohman sat in for Confrey on one of the records by "his" orchestra. After the 1920s, Confrey mainly wrote for jazz bands; he retired after World War II but kept composing until 1959. He died at age 76 in Lakewood, New Jersey, after suffering for many years from Parkinson's disease. His legacy includes over a hundred pieces for piano, songs and miniature operas, plus many piano rolls, published music and recordings. Composing for jazz bands after the 1920s, beside more than a hundred works left behind, may hint at a long working life across several forms.
Browse piano sheets by Zez Confrey on Zen Virtual Piano.
Zez Confrey, whose full name was Edward Elzear Confrey, was born in Peru, Illinois, the youngest child of Thomas and Margaret Confrey. He began to play piano at the age of four, and AllMusic notes that he was already leading his own dance band in high school. Aspiring to be a concert pianist, he attended Chicago Musical College and studied with private teachers. At the college, AllMusic adds, he fell for the French Impressionists; their "modernistic" sense of harmony was to be important in his composing and piano work. Leading a dance band in high school, beside the harmony of the French Impressionists, may point to popular and classical strands in his training.
Confrey's first professional job, in 1915, was as a music demonstrator for Harry von Tilzer's company in Chicago, where he published his first songs. After leaving the Navy, he took a job at the QRS piano-roll company, working as a pianist and an editor of rolls. AllMusic says he made nearly 200 piano rolls in all, and edited most of them himself. AllMusic credits Confrey with launching novelty ragtime single-handedly, through "My Pet", an original number that was among his earliest QRS rolls. A job as a music demonstrator in Chicago, beside study at Chicago Musical College, may point to Chicago as a place that recurs in his career.
"Kitten on the Keys" was a novelty piano solo that Confrey wrote in 1921. Its inspiration was his grandmother's cat, which he heard walking across her piano keyboard. According to AllMusic, sheet-music sales passed a million copies. The Experiment in Modern Music concert at Aeolian Hall, where Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was premiered, was a historic event, and on February 12, 1924, Confrey played in it as a soloist with billing above George Gershwin. A million sheet-music copies, beside a billing above Gershwin, may hint at two kinds of public notice, in sales and on stage. A grandmother's piano in the story of Kitten on the Keys, beside Confrey beginning piano at the age of four, may suggest that the piano appears both in his earliest years and in the origin of his 1921 solo.
AllMusic writes that Confrey did not take making recordings nearly as seriously as making rolls and publishing sheet music. In one case, pianist Phil Ohman sat in for Confrey on one of the records by "his" orchestra. After the 1920s, Confrey mainly wrote for jazz bands; he retired after World War II but kept composing until 1959. He died at age 76 in Lakewood, New Jersey, after suffering for many years from Parkinson's disease. His legacy includes over a hundred pieces for piano, songs and miniature operas, plus many piano rolls, published music and recordings. Composing for jazz bands after the 1920s, beside more than a hundred works left behind, may hint at a long working life across several forms.
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Zez Confrey, whose full name was Edward Elzear Confrey, was a pianist and composer born in Peru, Illinois. He began to play piano at the age of four.
"Kitten on the Keys" is a novelty piano solo that Confrey wrote in 1921, inspired by hearing his grandmother's cat walk on the keyboard of her piano.
After leaving the Navy, Confrey took a job at the QRS piano-roll company, working as a pianist and an editor of rolls. AllMusic says he made nearly 200 piano rolls in all, and edited most of them himself.
At Aeolian Hall, where Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was premiered, Confrey was a soloist at the Experiment in Modern Music concert on February 12, 1924, billed above George Gershwin.