Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Abel Van Eps was born on August 7, 1913 in Plainfield, New Jersey into a family of musicians. His mother was a classical pianist, his father was a ragtime banjoist and sound engineer and his three brothers were musicians. He began playing banjo at eleven years old but after hearing Eddie Lang on the radio, he devoted himself to guitar. By thirteen, in 1926, he was performing on the radio.

Through the middle of the 1930s, he played with Harry Reser, Smith Ballew, Freddy Martin, Benny Goodman, and Ray Noble. Van Eps moved to Los Angeles, California and spent most of his remaining career as a studio musician, playing on many commercials and movie soundtracks.

In the 1930s, he invented a model of guitar with another bass string added to the common six-string guitar. The seven-string guitar allowed him to play bass lines below his chord voicings, unlike the single-string style of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. He called his technique “lap piano”, as it anticipated the fingerpicking style of country guitarists Chet Atkins and Merle Travis and inspired jazz guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, and Howard Alden to pick up the seven-string.

Dixieland had a following in Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s, and he played in groups led by Bob Crosby and Matty Matlock and appeared in the film Pete Kelly’s Blues. He played guitar on Frank Sinatra’s 1955 album. In The Wee Small Hours.

Playing guitar into his eighties, he built a career that lasted over sixty years. Swing and mainstream guitarist George Van Eps, who recorded eleven albums as a leader and thirty~two as a sideman, transitioned from pneumonia on November 29, 1998 in Newport Beach, California at the age of 85.

SUITE TABU 200

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CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL

Seating Bowl and Great Lawn open at 2:45pm.

Harris Theater Rooftop – Jazz: Next Gen Jazz (Enter on Randolph St.)

  • 11-11:40am – Saucedo Alumni Latin Jazz Collective
  • 12-12:40pm – Urban Horizons
  • 1-1:40pm – Charlie Reichert Powell & New River
  • 2-2:40pm – Neon Wilderness
  • 3-3:40pm – Mxmrys

Von Freeman Pavilion (North Promenade)

  • 11:30-12:25pm – Herbsaint
  • 12:40-1:35pm – Tim Fitzgerald Wes Montgomery Project
  • 1:50-2:45pm – Christian Dillingham Quartet
  • 3-4pm – Petra’s Recession Seven

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

  • 4:15-5:05pm – The Pharez Whitted Quintet
  • 5:25-6:10pm – Chicago Soul Jazz Collective w/ Dee Alexander
  • 6:25-7:25pm – Billy Valentine
  • 7:45-9pm – Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars

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CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL

Seating Bowl and Great Lawn open at 2:45pm.

Harris Theater Rooftop – Young Lions Jazz (Enter on Randolph St.)

  • 11am – Chicago High School for the Arts
  • 11:50am – Midwest Young Artists Conservatory
  • 12:40pm – Lane Tech College Prep High School
  • 1:35pm- Whitney Young High School
  • 2:25pm – New Trier High School
  • 3:15pm – Kenwood Academy High School

Von Freeman Pavilion (North Promenade)

  • 11:30am-12:25pm – Alvin Cobb Jr.
  • 12:40-1:35pm – Devon Sandridge
  • 1:50-2:45pm – Theodis Rodgers Organ Trio
  • 3-4pm – Carmen Stokes

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

  • 4:15-5:05pm – Tammy McCann
  • 5:25-6:10pm – Brandee Younger
  • 6:25-7:25pm – Nduduzo Makhathini
  • 7:45-9pm – Makaya McCraven

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CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL

Seating Bowl and Great Lawn open at 2:45pm.

Von Freeman Pavilion (North Promenade)

  • 11:30-12:25pm – Eric Hochberg String Thing
  • 12:40-1:35pm – Alexis Lombre Quartet
  • 1:50-2:45pm – Anthony Bruno Quartet

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Security gates open 2 hours before the event start time. The concert perimeter (Pritzker Pavilion, Stage and Great Lawn) will be closed to the public for 1 hour before the gates open.

  • 4:15-5:05pm – Juan Pastor Chinchano
  • 5:25 – 6:10pm – Walter Smith III Quartet
  • 6:25 – 7:25pm – Ari Brown Quintet
  • 7:45-9pm – Dianne Reeves

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CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL

Seating Bowl and Great Lawn open at 2:45pm.

Claudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd Floor North

  • 11am-12pm – The Live the Spirit Residency Young Masters – Presented by Live the Spirit
  • 12:15-1:15pm – Asian Improv, Francis Wong’s “Legends and Legacies” – Presented by Asian Improv
  • 2-3pm – The Fred Jackson Quartet – Presented by The Elastic Arts Foundation
  • 3:15-5:15pm – What is thing called Jazz? Presented by the Education Committee of the Jazz Institute of Chicago

Preston Bradly Hall, 3rd Floor South

  • 11am-12pm – Zubin Edalji Quintet – Presented by The Hyde Park Jazz Festival
  • 12:30-1:30pm – Zack Markstet, Performing Horace Silvers’ 1966 release “The Jody Grind” – Presented by The Fulton Street Collective
  • 2-3pm – The Natalie Scharf Quartet – Presented by Illiana Club
  • 3:30-4:30pm – Bobbi Wilsyn – Presented by The South Side Jazz Coalition

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

  • 6:30-7:30pm – Chico Freeman-100 Von Freeman Centennial
  • 8-9pm – Ron Carter and Foursight

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