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 publishin