George Van Epps on 6 strings with Pick

[ott...@hotmail.com]

It's from the 1940's and he was still quite a chord player, Wow.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqdsiXSfEyQ>

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[ott...@hotmail.com]

If anybody has Howard Roberts Jaunty Jolly LP he uses this Van Epps style to play Winchester Cathedral.
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[joel fass]

Amazing playing, and he rose above the square, stiff rhythm section beautifully...

[Gerry]

On 2016-09-02 00:18:03 +0000, ott...@hotmail.com said:

> It's from the 1940's and he was still quite a chord player, Wow.
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqdsiXSfEyQ>

Wow! That's called verve--he sounds like invented it verve!

This youtube clips about a bar from the intro, but is still greatly
appreciated. I have it on an album "Fun on the Frets: Early Jazz
Guitar Featuring Carl Kress, George Van Eps, Tony Mottola, Dick
McDonough". I see no commercial availability, so I'll upload and
distribute it on request, for those who love dusty old antiques!

It was a Yazoo LP from 1979:

"This Yazoo LP has many rather rare acoustic guitar performances. Carl
Kress, a great chordal player, is heard on ten duets with fellow
guitarist Tony Mottola in 1941, a couple of hot numbers with Dick
McDonough (1934's "Danzon" and "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling" from
1936) and two 1939 solos. In addition the seven-string guitar pioneer
George Van Eps is featured on four numbers with a trio from 1949. Those
listeners who have only heard of Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian
among early guitarists are well-advised to search for this fascinating
LP."

The songlist:

01 Fun On The Frets - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
02 Jazz In G - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
03 Sarong Number - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
04 The Camel Walks - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
05 Blonde On The Loose - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
06 Serenade - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
07 Squeeze Box Swing - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
08 Sharp As A Tack - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
09 Nobody's Idea - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
10 Boogie Woogie For Guitar - Carl Kress & Tony Mottola
11 Danzon - Carl Kress & Dick McDonough
12 I've Got A Feeling You're Fooling Me - Carl Kress & Dick McDonough
13 Peg Leg Shuffle - Carl Kress
14 Sutton Mutton (Taking It On The Lamb) - Carl Kress
15 I Wrote It For Joe - George Van Eps
16 Kay's Fantasy - George Van Eps
17 Tea For Two - George Van Eps
18 Once In A While - George Van Eps

More notes follow from when a fiend made it available The dl link is
no longer available.

http://record-fiend.blogspot.com/2009/11/fun-on-frets-early-jazz-guitar-yazoo.html

[Gerry]

On 2016-09-02 00:18:03 +0000, ott...@hotmail.com said:

> It's from the 1940's and he was still quite a chord player, Wow.
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqdsiXSfEyQ>

Thanks for taking the trouble, Bobby, on a usenet site that is
practically the definition of a ghost town. I've been enjoying the
hell out of the album since you reminded me of it!

[ott...@hotmail.com]

> Thanks for taking the trouble, Bobby, on a usenet site that is
> practically the definition of a ghost town. I've been enjoying the
> hell out of the album since you reminded me of it!

Heh, A friend who got rid of his Cassette player gave me a shopping bag full of cassettes he recorded over the years. He's a really good classical player as well as jazz player, so I was really hoping for more classical stuff, not necessarily guitar ,but symphonic, as I've been getting interested in that lately. As soon as I heard this tape, it reminded of Van Epps but very early, and so it was. It was a real find for me. I just had to share.

Take care,
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[Mike Neer]

I studied a lot of George's playing, especially the 30s and 50s recordings (he stopped playing during WW2 to go to work for the military). He played some really nice breaks on early Louis Prima records recorded in NY, and also with Benny Goodman's small groups of the mid-30s, and he killed on sessions with Adrian Rollini. He really hit his stride though when he was making records with Jess Stacy and then later on the recordings for Jump Records.

His playing was a combination of tenor banjo playing, which his father was a virtuoso of, and his early exposure to Eddie Lang. In the 30s, he was deeply influenced by a Segovia performance he saw. It's also great to read about him--Dick Sudhalter's book and the book on Epiphone.

Coincidentally, Mike Stern is the one who told me to get the George Van Eps Guitar Method. You can hear examples of it in his playing, though he used the info his own way.

Some killer breaks on this track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS-Ty_htEXE

[rpjazzguitar]

Thanks for posting the older Van Eps tracks.

When I started playing in the 60's, the older players were in awe of Van Eps like nobody else. But, it was never clear to me where they'd heard him. I seem to recall that he was on the radio a lot, but I'm not certain about that.

Mellow Guitar, which was revered, came out in 57, I think.

[Gerry]

On 2016-09-02 12:20:27 +0000, Mike Neer said:

> On Thursday, September 1, 2016 at 8:18:05 PM UTC-4, ott...@hotmail.com wrote:

> I studied a lot of George's playing, especially the 30s and 50s
> recordings (he stopped playing during WW2 to go to work for the
> military). He played some really nice breaks on early Louis Prima
> records recorded in NY, and also with Benny Goodman's small groups of
> the mid-30s, and he killed on sessions with Adrian Rollini. He really
> hit his stride though when he was making records with Jess Stacy and
> then later on the recordings for Jump Records.
> His playing was a combination of tenor banjo playing, which his father
> was a virtuoso of, and his early exposure to Eddie Lang. In the 30s,
> he was deeply influenced by a Segovia performance he saw. It's also
> great to read about him--Dick Sudhalter's book and the book on Epiphone.
>
> Coincidentally, Mike Stern is the one who told me to get the George Van
> Eps Guitar Method. You can hear examples of it in his playing, though
> he used the info his own way.
>

> Here are a few killer sessions:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS-Ty_htEXE
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ydzZ2f6t6o

Great stuff, Mike! Thanks for making these available--particularly the
Four Star Rhythm Section That's a pretty obscure recording!

[Gerry]

On 2016-09-02 16:26:34 +0000, rpjazzguitar said:

> Thanks for posting the older Van Eps tracks.
>
> When I started playing in the 60's, the older players were in awe of
> Van Eps like nobody else. But, it was never clear to me where they'd
> heard him. I seem to recall that he was on the radio a lot, but I'm not
> certain about that.

Eh--he was a sideman and accrued the same kind of "fame" most do! ;-)

> Mellow Guitar, which was revered, came out in 57, I think.

Recorded 12/31/56 -- released in 1957--it was prior to stereo. They
recorded the guitar direct to the board but also mic'd it in front,
then mixed the two together, the way Joe Pass and Jim Hall both did in
the 70's.

Van Eps use to do a regular weekly gig in Huntington Beach through most
of the 90's. He'd also gig out on Balboa Island in Newport Beach too,
sometimes in a duo with Howard Alden who is a Newport Beach native. I
always figured Alden might have grown up studying with him, but have no
verification of that. Entering his 80's he recorded four albums for
Concord from 1991 to 1994. Van Eps moved to SoCal in the late 30's.

I moved to Newport Beach in 1990 and heard Van Eps was playing around
but--amazingly--never got off my ass and ran it down; I was a harried
and hard working salary man then.

Maj6 heard him a few times and said what a number of friends had said:
that his performances were somewhat flat at this point in his life. It
was unique solo guitar work without question, but in well worked-out
arrangements. As Bobby's and Mike's youtubes underscore, there were
quite a few varieties of Van Eps to be heard, all of them worth
listening to.

[Gerry]

On 2016-09-02 18:19:01 +0000, Gerry said:

> On 2016-09-02 16:26:34 +0000, rpjazzguitar said:
>
>> Thanks for posting the older Van Eps tracks.
>>
>> When I started playing in the 60's, the older players were in awe of
>> Van Eps like nobody else. But, it was never clear to me where they'd
>> heard him. I seem to recall that he was on the radio a lot, but I'm not
>> certain about that.
>
> Eh--he was a sideman and accrued the same kind of "fame" most do! ;-)
>
>> Mellow Guitar, which was revered, came out in 57, I think.
>
> Recorded 12/31/56 -- released in 1957--it was prior to stereo. They
> recorded the guitar direct to the board but also mic'd it in front,
> then mixed the two together, the way Joe Pass and Jim Hall both did in
> the 70's.

Hey--somebody posted the whole album on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8V7i3weqW0&feature=youtu.be

;-)

[John Galich]

A transcription of this solo exists. It is in a jazz guitar transcriptions book published by Down Beat in the late '70s/early '80s, and long out of print. I believe somebody on this group may have digitized the book. Anyway, while the solo sounds intricate and complex, the transcription revealed (to me, at least) that it was very logical and rather easy to navigate/follow. Of course playing it at tempo is another story...still need to work on that:)

John Galich

[Gerry]

The book "Jazz Styles and Analysis: Guitar" edited by Jack Petersen
(1979, Downbeat Music Workshop Publications) has a solo by George Van
Eps but it is "I Never Knew" from his Mellow Guitar album.

I'd *love* to see that "Once in a While" solo transcribed!

[John Galich]

Oops, my mistake!

JG