Zez Confrey Punches His Way Into the Music Business

Zez Confrey

Source: AMICA

Born a pudgy little wailer on 3 April 1895 in Peru, Illinois, ragtime and novelty piano composer, Edward Elzear Zez Confrey, began piano as a youth. He formed an orchestra while in high school, also playing piano on steamboats. Confrey then attended the Chicago Musical Collage, there developing a strong affinity for French Impressionism. In 1915 Confrey landed a job w the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Company leading to the composition of such as 'On the Banks of My Dear Old Illinois', 'Over the Top' and 'My Pet'. He enlisted in the Navy when the United States entered into World War I. He may have never sailed the seas, but he did make a couple of piano rolls stateside in Chicago in 1917 while in the service. Jasen & Tichenor (below) have him punching his first, 'Over the Top', issued on Imperial 511340. Upon terminating active duty he resumed civilian life in Chicago, he composing, arranging and performing piano, notably with the QRS piano roll manufacturer founded in 1900.

The first player piano roll had been invented in France in 1863 by Henri Fourneaux, who got the idea from a loom designed by Jacquard Mills in 1800, also in France, that could weave patterns according to punched card diagrams. It was Edwin Welte who introduced the first perforated paper roll in Germany in 1887 that could hold longer songs. As for Confrey, early piano rolls for QRS included 'My Pet' in 1918 on 100827. He would record that again in 1921 for issue on 78 rpm shellac per Brunswick 2082. Among other piano rolls which Confrey put to the 10" flat disc was 'Greenwich Witch' of 1921 per Brunswick 2167 released in 1922. Jasen has Confrey recording 123 rolls of paper during his tenure with QRS ['Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History'/ Dover Publications/ 1978], among them 'Kitten on the Keys' (QRS 101003) and 'Mandy 'n' Me' (QRS 1678) in 1921. By that time Confrey's combination of ragtime with pianola had developed into what was known as novelty piano, a branch of ragtime next door to jazz but in a rather smaller house with its own tradition based on the player piano. Novelty piano was a smaller department of popular music and Confrey's recordings drew not masses of fans. 'Kitten on the Keys', however, charted at #5 not once, but twice, first in June of 1921 as a piano solo on Brunswick 2082, next in July 1922 with His Zez Confrey Orchestra on Victor 189000. 'Dizzy Fingers' later rang a dimmer bell at #18 in 1927. Meanwhile, his composition, 'Stumbling', reached the Top Ten for Paul Whiteman, Ray Miller, Billy Murray and the Broadway Dance Orchestra. None of Confrey's own of numerous versions of 'Stumbling' for several labels charted, nor was his dance orchestra so well-known as Miller's, and especially not Whiteman's. Nor did Confrey record any cylinders for Edison Records, keeping to its 78 rpm Diamond Disc label. Though the Diamond Disc may have sounded a little better than its competitors, its proprietary requirements made it incompatible with the rest of the industry and would put Edison Records out of business by 1930.

'My Pet'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

Recorded July 1918   QRS 100827

Included on 'Creator of the Novelty Rag' Folkways RBF-28   1976

Composition: Confrey

'Greenwich Witch'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

Recorded 4 Aug 1921   QRS 101022

Included on 'Creator of the Novelty Rag' Folkways RBF-28   1976

Composition: Confrey

'Kitten On The Keys'   Piano solo by Zez Confrey

Recorded Jan 1921   Brunswick 2082   #5 June 1921

Composition: Confrey

'Kitten On The Keys'   Piano solo by Zez Confrey

Recorded 21 Sep 1921   Edison Diamond Disc Re-Creation 50898-L

Composition: Confrey

'Sheik of Araby'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

QRS 1775 issued Jan 1922

Music: Ted Snyder   Lyrics: Harry B. Smith / Francis Wheeler

'Stumbling'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

QRS 1938 issued 1922

Composition: Confrey

'Dumbell'   The Broadway Dance Orchestra (not Confrey)

Recorded 12 July 1922   Edison Diamond Disc Re-Creation 51104-R

Composition: Confrey

'The Sneak'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

QRS 1992 issued 1923

Composition: Nacio Herb Brown

'Humorestless'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

Ampico 64381 issued 1925

Composition: Confrey

'Dizzy Fingers'   Zez Confrey & His Orchestra

Recorded 3 June 1927 in NYC    Victor 20777-B   #18 1927

Composition: Confrey

'By the Waters of Minnetonka'   Piano roll by Zez Confrey

Ampico 68091 issued 1927

Composition: Thurlow Lieurance

Highlighting Confrey's life in the thirties was marriage in 1932 to showgirl, Wilhelmina Matthes, she to bear a son the next year to a novelty ragtime piano player whose luck had been on a roll for years (hmm). It came time to put it on reel in 1937 with Babe Ruth batting helpless baseballs and a young trio of the DeMarco Sisters participating in the Warner Brothers Vitaphone short, 'Home Run on the Keys'. This is Confrey's only known appearance in visual media.

'Home Run on the Keys'   Film short: Warner Brothers Vitaphone   1937

'Kitten on the Keys' performed by Zez Confrey

'On the Beach at Bali Bali' performed by the DeMarco Sisters

'Home Run on the Keys'   David Mendoza Orchestra "conducted" by Babe Ruth

Parkinson's Disease arriving in the forties put a cease to performing, though Confrey continued to compose until 1959. He spent the last decade of his life incapacitated by Parkinson's and died in Lakewood, New Jersey, on 22 November 1971.