ABSTRACT
American composer and ragtime pianist, born Edward Elezear Confrey in Peru, Illinois, noted for his virtuoso novelty numbers. He recorded on piano rolls, and made highly popular discs of his own: “Kitten on the Keys” (Emerson 10486; Victor 18900; Brunswick 2082; 1921), “Dizzy Fingers” (Victor 20777; 1927), and many others. He began as a student of classical piano at the Chicago Musical College; and he appeared in the “Experiment in Modern Music,” the Paul Whiteman concert of 1924 in which Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue had its premiere. Confrey died in Lakewood, New Jersey. [Jasen 1971.]
Ray Conniff was born a New Englander in Attleboro, Massachusetts. His first musical memories were listening to his father play the family piano. His dad taught him to play the trombone, and by his junior year of high school he had become a fine trombone player. His first musical venture was in a high school extracurricular dance band known as Van Rounseville and his Hollangers. After high school he went to Boston to be in Dan Murphey’s Musical Skippers and a society orchestra where he learned about the intricacies of writing and playing dance music.
