Kitten on the Keys -- piano duet & 3-hand accordion

This is an excerpt of a film available from British Pathé (free in this resolution; for a fee in higher resolution). I've cut out the extended intro, so go to http://www.britishpathe.com for the full-length video.

This is from 1931, featuring Edgar Fairchild (born Milton Suskind) on the left with Robert Lindholm on the right, playing Zez Confrey's famous "Kitten on the Keys" from 1921.

Fairchild & Lindholm's performances were called "four-handed vulgarities" by The Musical Times in 1930. Even by that time, ragtime, novelty and jazz music was struggling for acceptance!

Fairchild worked for the Ampico piano roll company.

This video is an example of the amazing piano skills that existed in those days, and an example of what "fast" actually meant in the oft-quoted line, "It is never right to play ragtime fast." (There are earlier examples of very fast ragtime playing, but of course they're audio only, since sound film didn't exist much earlier than this.)

HOWEVER, this film was mastered slightly fast. See the video response to hear it (with the extended intro) at the corrected speed. (Hint: It's still plenty quick!)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ragtime
• piano
• zez
• confrey
• fast
• duet
• accordion
• kitten
• fairchild
• lindholm
• ampico

[pianolasociety]

I'm not surprised the Musical Times called this "four-handed vulgarities" - it is still and always was a snooty snobbish piece of trash with about as much life as a telephone directory. It's full of boring stuff about church music and teaching pieces for prissy old maid teachers and the like - utterly ghastly! Some things never change! LOL

[Keeper1st]

@pianolasociety So it was worse than Etude?

[Fersomling]

Whoever composed this must have had a few extra coffees.

[Keeper1st]

That would be Zez Confrey. One night when staying over at his mother's house, he was wakened by noise from the piano. He got up to find his mother's cat walking on the keys. Thus he was inspired.

[CooDocu]

@Fersomling Maybe that's where the idea of "Novelty" ragtime comes from!

[LinearCarp1209]

Thats pretty cool. I love Kitten on the Keys, it may be my favorite ragtime piece. But this is something else. I love the sound of the accordion and the '3 handed' part!

[KawhackitaRag]

@skgorsuch I'm glad you found it too! Several of Edgar Fairchild's piano rolls can be found on Youtube, if you want to check those out, too.

[KawhackitaRag]

I love the eyebrow that Edgar Fairchild gives the audience at 1:33. Does it remind anyone else of Fats Waller?

[pianolasociety]

@Keeper1st yup, far worse. In Etude were sometimes interesting articles. I got given a complete run of Musical Times once from c.1950 through to c. 1980. The most interesting thing in 30+ years was an obituary for Ernest Newman. The rest was duller than reading wallpaper. I sold them off in chunks of a decade (as they were so heavy otherwise!). Calling Edgar Fairchild's duets a "four-handed vulgarity" would give a warm fuzzy feeling of sanctimonious comfort to their dead-head readers. Ghastly!

[Cillitpeng]

oO ... wow!

[KenJWC]

Too fast.  Faster isn't always better.

[goldeninja]

this is AMAZING!!!!!!!! they're are so syncronized it's amazing i can't stop watching it!!!!!!