[78-L] What Happens to Old-Timers? A 1935 article

[Jeff Sultanof]

Confrey may not have stayed with Vallee for very long, which is why his
occupancy of the piano chair is generally unknown to most of us. I've
explored this issue on other lists; musicians say that they played with a
particular band, and no one can verify it. One musician claiming he played
for Stan Kenton was a seventeen year old at the time; one of the trumpet
players became ill during the last set of the evening, and this guy sat in
for the last three arrangements of the set. The next day, the original
trumpet player was back in the section. There are hundreds of instances
like this.

Jeff Sultanof

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com> wrote:

> When I brokered the Valle archive in 1987,  I went through tons of letters,
> contracts,  etc. from the 20s through the 40s and I don't recall any
> mention
> of Confrey in any context.   The three piano players I recall who had lots
> of documentation were Cliff Burwell,  Charlie Henderson and,  a little
> later,  Walter Gross.
>
> Which reminds me of the odd fact that each of these three wrote one super
> big hit song which became a standard...but so far as I know  none of the
> three had  any  other songs published which were even mildly successful.
>
>
> Taylor
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Malcolm Rockwell" <malcolm at 78data.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 6:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] What Happens to Old-Timers? A 1935 article
>
>
> > That Zez played for Rudy Vallee is a new one on me - they did not record
> > together as far as I know - but it got me doing some digging and I came
> > up with an unknown (well, unknown to me) Confrey side where he plays
> > piano on a Charlie Straight record.
> > It's Br 3326, Charlie Straight and His Orchestra, doing "Tell Me
> > Tonight" b/w "It Made You Happy When You Made Me Cry." I'd love nice
> > clean MP3 or Wav files of them, if any one has the disc and is so
> > inclined.
> > Malcolm
> >
> > *******
> >
> > On 11/18/2011 3:57 PM, Taylor Bowie wrote:
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Harold Aherne"<leotolstoy_75 at yahoo.com>
> >> To:<78-L at 78online.com>
> >> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 2:44 PM
> >> Subject: [78-L] What Happens to Old-Timers? A 1935 article
> >>
> >>
> >> Found this in the 27 Aug. 1935 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
> >>
> ****************************************************************************
> >> WHAT HAPPENS TO OLDTIMERS
> >>
> >> Their Day of Glory May Be Gone, But They'll Ne'er Be Forgotten
> >>
> >> By Darrell V. Martin, Post-Gazette Radio Editor
> >>
> >> WHAT HAPPENS TO big name orchestra leaders when they cease to lead an
> >> orchestra?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Among the Missing"
> >> Zez Confrey is now Rudy Vallee's piano player and Lew Conrad is vocalist
> >> with Abe
> >> Lyman's Band.
> >>
> >> <snip>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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