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Zez Confrey  (1895-1971)

According to the Internet source given below, Zez [ Edward Elzear] Confrey was an American composer of popular music having more than 100 songs and instrumental pieces to his credit. The youngest of five children, he was brought up in Peru, Illinois, where he went to the LaSalle-Peru High School, performing in and conducting his own orchestra. After high school in studied classical music at the Chicago Musical College under Jesse Dunn and Frank Denhart. His best-known work is undoubtedly the extraordinary novelty rag Kitten on the Keys
Whilst studying he earned his living by playing piano in an orchestra run by himself and his brother Jim Confrey. Word War I service in the US Navy found him in a tour show Leave It To Sailors in which Jack Benny also performed as a violinist. Also during the war years, Zez Confrey became established at the QRS Piano Roll Company making some 127 piano-rolls between 1918 and 1924. He then worked with the Brunswick, Edison, Emerson and Victor Talking Machine companies.
As the jazz age progressed he turned to composition. The book listed below written by him was more than 40 years in print. A sufferer of Parkinson's disease, he retired after World War II.
List of Zez Confrey's works.

Sheet Music:

1. [§] Coaxing the Piano (1922), Descant/Treble/Tenor/Tenor/Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
2. [§] Dizzy Fingers (1923), Tenor/Tenor/Tenor+Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
3. [§] Dumbell (1922), Tenor/Tenor/Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)/Vocal(Optional Tenor)
4. [§] Greenwich Witch (1921), Treble/Tenor/Tenor/Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
5. [§] Kitten on the Keys (1921), Treble/Tenor/Tenor+Sopranino/Bass+Descant/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
6. [§] My Pet (1921), Treble/Tenor/Tenor/Tenor+Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
7. [§] Poor Buttermilk (1921), Descant+Bass/Treble/Tenor/Tenor+Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
8. [§] Stumbling (1922), Tenor/Tenor/Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
9. [§] Tricks (1922), Tenor/Tenor/Tenor/Bass/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)
10. [§] You Tell 'em Ivories (1921), Descant/Treble/Tenor/Tenor/Bass/Great Bass(Bass)

Recorder Music CDs:
 Midi Ragtime Recorder Ensemble on "Recorder Ragtime: Curiosities" 
Ragtime Music CDs:
 Eteri Andjaparidze on "Confrey: Piano Music" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Ton Van Bergeyk on "Black & Tan Fantasy" 
 Mark Birnbaum on "Hot Piano! Ragtime Blues Jazz Classical Mark Birnbaum" 
 Mimi Blais on "Old Rags New Rags" 
 Mimi Blais on "Ragtime" 
 Mimi Blais on "Taxi!" 
 Peter Bocage on "Peter Bocage with the Creole Serenaders and the Love-Jiles Ragtime Orchestra" 
 William Bolcom on "Sweet Sixteenths: A Ragtime Concert" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Claude Bolling on "Original Ragtime" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Claude Bolling on "Original Ragtime/Original Boogie Woogie/Original Piano Blues" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Claude Bolling on "Ragtime Bolling & Boogie" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Joe "Fingers" Carr on "Honky Tonk Hits of Joe "Fingers" Carr" 
 Zez Confrey on "Vol.4 Keyboard Wizards Of The Gershwin Era" 
 Matthew Davidson on "Whippin the Keys" 
 Richard Dowling on "Rhapsody in Ragtime" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Richard Dowling on "World's Greatest Piano Rags" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 "Perfessor" Bill Edwards on "It's Ragging Cats and Dogs" 
 "Perfessor" Bill Edwards on "A Ragtime Sampler" 
 "Perfessor" Bill Edwards on "The Two Sides of Perfessor Bill" 
 Elite Syncopators on "American Sampler Rag" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Marco Fumo on "Last Time Rag: Joplin - Morton et al" 
 Frederick Hodges on "Kitten on the Keys: Ragtime, Novelty & Stride Classics" 
 Dick Hyman on "Forgotten Dreams: Archives of Novelty Piano (1920's-1930's)" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Dave Jasen on "Rompin' Stompin' Ragtime" 
 Sue Keller on "Live in Kalamazoo" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Sue Keller on "Nola" 
 Sue Keller on "Those Irresistible Blues" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Noel Lester on "Syncopated Sensations" 
 Johnny Maddox on "Red Hot Ragtime Volume 2" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Alan Mandel on "American Piano Vol. 3: Rags and Other Riches" 
 Lincoln Mayorga on "On Tour" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Lincoln Mayorga on "Sophisticated Innocence" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Various Artists on "A Century of Ragtime 1897-1997" 
 Various Artists on "The Hits of '22: Do It Again!" 
 Various Artists on "Pianola Jazz: Early Piano Jazz & Ragtime Played on Pianola Rolls" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Various Artists on "Rhapsody in Ragtime" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Various Artists on "Salon to Swing" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Various Artists on "That Devilin' Tune" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Max Morath on "Living a Ragtime Life" 
 New England Ragtime Ensemble on "The Art of the Rag" 
 Guido Nielsen on "Kitten on the Keys" 
 Lisa Otey on "Kitten on the Keys" 
 Knuckles O'Toole on "Knuckles O'Toole: Plays The Greatest All-Time Ragtime Hits" 
 Muriel Pollock on "Vol. 6 Keyboard Wizards of the Gershwin Era" 
 Styliani on "Dizzy Fingers" 
 Trebor Jay Tichenor on "Ragtime Reunion" 
 Dave Tucker on "Meadow Lark" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Dave Tucker on "Tickled Ragtime & Novelties" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)
 Artis Wodehouse on "Zez Confrey: Piano Rolls and Scores" 
Brass Music CDs:
 Canadian Brass on "Red Hot Jazz: The Dixieland..." 
 New Columbian Brass Band on "The Teddy Bears Picnic"