This recording was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for "BestInstrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)."On that famous night in 1924 when George Gershwin made music...

This recording was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for "Best
Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)."
On that famous night in 1924 when George Gershwin made music history with the premiere of 'Rhapsody in Blue,' he was not the headliner; Zez Confrey was. A recording star of the early '20s, Confrey had already had big hits with the song "Stumbling" and the piano solo "Kitten on the Keys," but his popularity would soon wane, and though there is no doubt that he was no Gershwin, his clever, hyperkinetic jazz-flavored concoctions had real quality, and it is a shame that they fell into obscurity.
Confrey's rescuer comes in the form of Georgian-American pianist Eteri Andjaparidze, who plays these pieces with a wonderful sense of good spirit and technical polish. She really lights into the high-voltage numbers like "Dizzy Fingers" or "Kitten," which is exactly the point, and yet is suitably flexible and expressive in the MacDowell-inspired nostalgia of "Three Little Oddities" or the reflective "Moods of a New Yorker." Considering the rarity of Confrey's music in the catalog, this Naxos disc is a most pleasant surprise.