George Van Eps

George Van Eps Abel ( born August 7, 1913 in Plainfield, New Jersey, † November 29, 1998 in Newport Beach, California ) was an American jazz guitarist. He played the first jazz musicians on electric guitar and in 1939 developed a guitar with seven strings.

Life and work

Van Eps comes from a musical family; his father was the banjo virtuoso Fred Van Eps, who also performed with George Gershwin. George Van Eps first played also banjo, before moving at age 13 under the influence of Eddie Lang on guitar. In 1927, he took two of his brothers, " Brunswick Recording Artists " his first records on. He then worked with Harry Reser and with Smith Ballew, where he worked six months with his idol Eddie Lang. Then he played in 1933, Freddy Martin, 1934/35 Benny Goodman and 1935/36, with Ray Noble, whose orchestra he once belonged after a stint as a studio musician in Hollywood from 1939 to 1941.

The next few years he operated with his father, an acoustic laboratory and developed a seven-string guitar ( with a bass string to own solo accompaniment). Then again, he worked for many years mainly as a studio musician. During this time he took up with Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Paul Weston and Matty Matlock and also acted in the movie " Pete Kelly 's Blues " with. Van Eps also played in various radio shows, including all episodes of the series Pete Kelly 's Blues, and in television orchestras. Occasionally, he also played jazz records a so 1956 " Mellow Guitar", 1966 " My Guitar " in duet with Frank Flynn or 1968 solo album " Soliloqui ". Due to illness, he paused for a longer period. In 1986, he was with Peanuts Hucko on a European tour.

In the 1990s he often performed with his student Howard Alden and played several albums for Concord Records a. He can also be heard on recordings by Adrian Rollini, Louis Prima, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Red Norvo, Frank Trumbauer and Ralph Sutton.

Lexigraphic entries

  • Wolf Kampmann Reclams jazz lexicon. Stuttgart 2003; ISBN 3-15-010528-5
  • Martin Kunzler Jazz Encyclopedia Vol 2 Reinbek 2002; ISBN 3-499-16513-9
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