Zez Confrey (1895-1971) Piano Music "Where Confrey - that bewildering bunch of piano technic and "raggy" rhythms, got 'Zez' for his first...
Zez Confrey (1895-1971) Piano Music
"Where Confrey
- that bewildering bunch of piano technic and "raggy" rhythms, got
'Zez' for his first name is a puzzle - it should have been 'Zip' for that
quality distinguishes this artist in syncopation and modern dance idioms.
Confrey is a piano pupil of one of the great concert pianists of America and
had a brilliant career in classical lines ahead of him but immediate and big
success was offered him through his almost uncanny powers in modern dance
composing and playing and he accepted the lure. Today Zez Confrey has earned
the title of 'the People's Paderewski' and rightly, for in person or through
his sparkling records he electrifies his audiences."
- Brunswick Records Catalogue 1922
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 rhythmicaIly 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.
Zez Confrey was
born on April 3, 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 recognized 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 Dunn and Frank Denhart. He was immersed in music from
the Classics with the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, to the contemporary
music of the French Impressionists, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel music that was
considered cutting edge and controversial in the second decade of this century.
During those heady years, Zez was making a living by playing the piano. In 1915
he formed an orchestra with his brother Jim and their group performed in many
of the most important hotels and ballrooms. The recordings Zez made with this
orchestra became "dance music" hits for the Victor Talking Machine
Company.
During World War I,
Zez Confrey joined the Navy and performed in a touring musical revue entitled, Leave It To Sailors. Zez, who played and
acted on stage was joined by a violinist from Waukegan, IL. That accomplished
violinist - Jack Benny - eventually became one of America's most beloved
comedians and television personalities! After the war, Zez was engaged to
record novelty piano works and arrangements for the QRS Piano Roll Company.
From 1918 to 1924 Confrey recorded 127 rolls. From 1924 until 1927 he recorded
another 44 piano rolls, this time, exclusively for the Ampico Corporation. The
piano rolls led to recording engagements for the new Chicago company, Brunswick,
Edison and Emerson. Fame and fortune recognized Confrey's gifts.
In 1921 Jack Mills
(the founder of what today is known as Belwin Mills Publishing Corporation)
offered Confrey a publishing contract. Kitten
on the Keys, My Pet, Poor Buttermilk, Stumbling, Coaxing the Piano, Dumbell,
Dizzy Fingers, and many other piano pieces came from Confrey's pen.
In 1923 Confrey authored, what was to be a phenomenally successful book
entitled Zez Confrey's Modern Course in
Novelty Piano Playing. For over forty years it remained in print.
All this notoriety
did not remain unnoticed. In 1924 Paul Whiteman was about to present a very
special concert. He engaged Aeolian Hall, one of New York's finest concert
facilities. Whiteman called his concert" An Experiment in Modern
Music" and the date, February 12, 1924 was booked. The printed programs
announced that Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra would be
"assisted by Zez Confrey and George Gershwin." As history would mark
it, Confrey received top billing on the program that introduced Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue! For his part, Confrey
performed a medley of popular airs, followed by his innovative and comic Kitten on the Keys. He was followed by a
foxtrot adaptation by Ferde Grofe of The
Volga Boat Song (called "Russian Rose"), and closing the
first half of the concert, three Irving Berlin tunes, including Alexander' s Ragtime Band. The audience
cheered, particularly roaring their approval of the humor and inventiveness of
Zez Confrey. The second half of the concert began with Victor Herbert's first
work for jazz orchestra and concluded with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The audience remained on
the edge of their seats until the end of Gershwin's work. Thunderous applause
reverberated from every corner of Aeolian Han. On that day, the lucky audience
heard a new chapter to America's musical history, highlighted by Confrey's
musical magic on the first half, and Gershwin's masterpiece on the second half.
Whiteman's concert catapulted Gershwin's career, and seventy-five years later
his music is still remembered and much loved. Although Confrey was very much a
celebrity at that time, his star began to fade as Gershwin's was to rise.
Confrey turned more
and more to composing for jazz bands after the 1920s. The 1930s and 1940s were
the era of the "Big Band" and Confrey made a lasting contribution to
both small ensembles and large orchestras. He retired from active composing
after World War Il, although he sporadically continued to write music through
1959. He was a victim of Parkinson's disease and eventually died on November
22, 1971 in Lakewood, New Jersey. The legacy he left encompasses over one
hundred piano works, miniature operas, popular songs, mood pieces, and simple children's
music for beginners.
For her recording
of Zez Confrey's piano miniatures, which was made a few days before the 100th
anniversary of his birth, Ms. Eteri Andjaparidze has chosen twenty-four works,
spanning the creative period 1921 to 1959. The earliest representative work on
the disc is Kitten on the Key~. (1921).
In the introduction to Zez Confrey's
Modernistic Piano Solos the story behind the music is explained:
" Concerning Kitten on the Keys, the
composer tens an amusing story of its origin. Zez was staying at his
grandmother's house over the weekend and after a quiet evening had retired to
his room. Suddenly he was awakened by a strange series of sounds which seemed
to be emanating from the old fashioned upright piano in the parlor. He went
down to investigate and discovered -the house cat promenading back and forth
across the keyboard. That incident was later developed into one of the most
famous of an piano fantasies." Kitten
on the Keys became an instant success for the composer, eventually
selling over a million copies. Pianistically demanding and, at times,
unorthodox, harmonically sophisticated and daring in its syncopation, the
feline imagery in combination with the memorable melodic inventiveness,
immediately won the heart of the public.
In 1922 Confrey
composed Coaxing the Piano and Stumbling. Once again, the syncopation and
melodic invention make both of these works irresistible. He demanded a
brilliant, high-speed performance of Coaxing
the Piano, and, as a resu1t, breaks away from the spirit of the
dance-oriented moderate tempo of ragtime. originally a song rather than an instrumental piece, has its roots
in traditional ragtime patterns. Confrey's piano paraphrase was much admired by
Aaron Copland, who in 1927, in an article on jazz structure and influence,
stated that this piece "typified the jazz age with its independent rhythm
spread over more than one measure, over a series of measures..."
We hear traces of
Grieg and MacDowell in Confrey's Three
Little Oddities of 1923 Dizzy
Fingers is a "speed demon" etude written for piano
virtuosi. The African Suite of
1924 shows us Confrey at his most strangely alluring, with touches of Jelly
Roll Morton and George Gershwin. Jay Walk (1927)
shows us how dangerous it can be to cross the street, white Sparkling Waters (1928) is subtitled
"Valse Brillante" and another of Confrey's classical piano tone
poems. Moods Of A New Yorker (1932)
shows a more contemplative side of Confrey. This is an urban meditation, a
piano "snap-shot" of a bygone era of Manhattan nightlife, chorus
lines, martinis at dusk, and the excitement of a new Busby Berkeley
showstopper. Blue Tornado (1935)
is another of Confrey's musical landscapes where the pianist creates the
violently whirling column of air. Rhythm
Venture (1935) is a bouncy, experiment in syncopation, marked boldly
by the composer "expressione" and "grandioso." Meandering (1936) is yet another of
Confrey's "walking" pieces where we imagine the composer taking a
stroll, hands in his pockets, whistling a memorable tune. Wise Cracker Suite (1936) is a humorous,
descriptive cllection of three pieces -Yokel
Opus paints a picture of a happy country bumpkin; Mighty Lackawanna is a piano portrait of
the city in New York state, located overlooking Lake Erie, near Buffalo; and The Sheriffs Lament is a cartoon-like
picture of cops and robbers. Amazonia (1945)
is marked " In Rhumba Style" and was probably influenced by the
explosion at that time in the United States of Latin American musical styles,
bands and movies. Fourth Dimension (1959)
is another of Confrey's virtuosic concert etudes, written in a classical style,
demanding from the pianist light hand-over-hand keyboard pyrotechnics.
-Notes by Marina
and Victor Ledin, @ 1998
Eteri
Andjaparidze
Recipient of the
highest national decoration, People's Artist of Georgia, Eteri Andjaparidze, is
recognized as one of the most distinguished pianists today. She was born into a
family of celebrated musicians in Thilisi, Republic of Georgia. Her father,
Zurab Andjaparidze, was leading tenor with the Bolshoi Theatre. Her natural
talents already early evident, Eteri received her first piano lessons from her
mother, Yvette Bachtadze, an important pianist and teacher in ber own right,
and at the age of five was enrolled in the Thilisi Special Music School for
Gifted Children. By the age of nine, Eteri bad already debuted in solo recital
and performed with the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra.
In 1972, Ms.
Andjaparidze was awarded the First Prize at the Transcaucasian Contest in Baku,
followed by the Fourth Prize in the 1974 Tchaikovsky International Competition
in Moscow, where she was the youngest participant. That same year, she entered
the
Moscow Tchaikovsky
State Conservatory of Music for advanced piano studies under the guidance of
Professor Vera Gornostayeva, a pupil of the legendary pianist and pedagogue,
Heinrich Neuhaus. In 1976, Ms. Andjaparidze became the first Soviet pianist to
win the Grand Prix at the Montreal International Piano Competition.
Ms. Andjaparidze
bas performed extensively throughout the world on major concert series and
international festivals, in recitals and as a soloist with leading orchestras
including St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian State Symphony, Moscow Virtuosi,
Montreal Symphony and Monte-Carlo Philharmonic under the batons of such eminent
conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Valeri Gergiyev, Vladimir Spivakov, Franz-Paul
Decker and James DePreist. She bas also collaborated in ensembles with su ch
partners as Vladimir Feltsman, Sergei Leiferkus, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber
Groups, and many others. In1985, she made a historic appearance with Beijing
and Shanghai Philharmonic symphony orchestras as the first Soviet artist to
tour China following the renewal of the cultural ex change. In 1991-1993, for
three consecutive seasons, Ms. Andjaparidze presented recital series in memory
of Sergei Rachmaninoff at Steinway Hall in New York.
Portions of this
immensely successful program were televised by NBC.
Deeply committed to
teaching, Ms Andjaparidze has conducted numerous master classes during her worldwide
concert engagements. For a decade between 1982-1992, she served as Professor of
Piano at the State Conservatory of Music in her native country.
Since 1992, upon
being granted permanent residency in the United States as an "outstanding
artist", Ms. Andjaparidze has made her home in New York City.
That same year, her
highly acclaimed orchestral debut in the United States was with the Oregon
Symphony. In addition to her ongoing performing career, Ms. Andjaparidze
continues to teach as an Affiliate Artist- Teacher at the Purchase Conservatory
of Music, and on the faculty of the Piano Summer Festival-Institute at New
Paltz, the State University of New York.
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