"Stumbling"
Words and music by Zez Confrey
Performed by Bennie Krueger and his Orchestra
Recorded May 1922, New York
Zez Confrey (1895-1971), the composer of "Stumbling" studied at Chicago Musical College which left him well versed in classical music, but his early work with the Chicago dance orchestra, he formed with his brother, sharpened his ear for up-to-date style. After recording with that orchestra in 1918 for the Victor Talking Machine company, Confrey was hired to record novelty pieces for the QRS Piano Roll Company and later for the Ampico Corporation, whose recording pianos were among the finest made. In 1921 he signed a publishing contract with Mills Music, for which he wrote a series of pieces that are as evocative of the 1920s and 1930s as Scott Joplin's rags are of the 1890s and 1900s. Characteristically their catchy titles were often explanatory such as "Dizzy Fingers", "Coaxing the Piano", "Kitten on the Keys" and "Stumbling" and their tuneful syncopations made them phenominal best sellers, both as sheet music and on record. (quotation from "A History of American Classical Music" by Barrymore Laurence Scherer)
