Joel has kindly sent me a PDF scan of his recent purchase, a nice copy of the 1923 "Van Eps Banjo Solos in C Notation"

You will notice that the cover states that the solos have:

"Carefully arranged and Fingered by the eminent Banjoist"

As Joel commented in his email:

"Playing the pieces exactly as written with all the right and left hand fingerings is odd at first but they really are perfect with no wasted movement."

I have always liked Van Eps' playing for this very reason. I was taught to play making  "economical" use of the RH by careful alternate fingering but Van Eps took this to an other level.

I have been working on a couple of previously un-transcribed Van Eps recordings, if you would like me to produce the notated score for download a few videos showing how to play one of the pieces please let me know.

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No matter how I try to download this I get a message saying I do not have permission. For instance:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /files/TUTORBOOKS/Van_Eps_Banjo_Solos.pdf on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Hi Jody... I will look into it for you.

Ian

Now it works!. Thanks Ian and Joel.

jody

Your welcome! 

The sheets for this have been available for a while.  I believe I first got them from Hal's site, there are piano parts there too.  

I was curious to see the collection complete.  When I found a copy for $10 I pounced.

I love the dreamy photo of Van Eps-- such a heartthrob!  Also the ad for "The BANJO SUPREME" is classic.

I searched as much as I could for a copyright renewal and could not find one.  Nor could I find the current owner of the William J. Smith Music Inc. catalog.

I should note that a later (and much abridged) edition of the "EZ Banjo Method" by the same publisher shows a banjo with a Van Eps tailpiece on the cover.  I don't know the make of banjo though.

Searching out additional information on Fred Van Eps I ran across an interview with his (also famous) son George Van Eps in the August 1981 issue of "Guitar Player" magazine here… (this is a link to a PDF).

http://www.tedgreene.com/images/pdf/TedGreene_GeorgeVanEps_Intervie...

The interesting part is when he was asked...

"Who were some of your other early influences?"

Well, quite a few people figure that my dad must have been a strong influence on me, but my parents were divorced when I was five, and my brothers and I lived with my mom; we hardly ever saw him until we were older."

That would have been about 1918.  Was FVE out on tour at that time or just on the run from obligations?

Another interesting and surprising thing that comes out in the interview is that George Gershwin had been Fred Van Eps' piano accompanist!

Joel Hooks said:

The interesting part is when he was asked...

"Who were some of your other early influences?"

Well, quite a few people figure that my dad must have been a strong influence on me, but my parents were divorced when I was five, and my brothers and I lived with my mom; we hardly ever saw him until we were older."

Gershwin? I wonder about that. No recordings of Eps with Gershwin (or vice versa), no mention of Eps in any Gershwin bio I can find.

For all his amazing genius musicality, Gershwin wasn't a particularly stellar piano-player, certainly not a studio musician type.

Van Eps chose much better piano players for his recordings. Felix Arndt & Frank Banta (probably the best of the best).

I'm willing to believe the article, maybe they played together informally...

In the article George Van Eps says that the two played together at home and that he sat on Gershwin's lap. No mention is made of the two friends recording or performing in public.

Do we know for a fact that Van Eps really chose his piano accompanists? Most recording companies had "in house" accompanists that they used for everything. This resulted in a Hit or Miss situation. It was particularly horrible in the case of the celebrated Irish fiddler from Sligo, Michael Coleman. His recordings, made in America, for many labels including Columbia, Victor, and Decca, often sound as if the pianist was issued ear plugs and told to guess where the beat was and to be sure to play chords that do not harmonize well and to change chords only when musically nonsensical. If Van Eps was assigned Company Accompanists, he was pretty lucky because it usually works well.

Trapdoor2 said:

Gershwin? I wonder about that. No recordings of Eps with Gershwin (or vice versa), no mention of Eps in any Gershwin bio I can find.

For all his amazing genius musicality, Gershwin wasn't a particularly stellar piano-player, certainly not a studio musician type.

Van Eps chose much better piano players for his recordings. Felix Arndt & Frank Banta (probably the best of the best).

I'm willing to believe the article, maybe they played together informally...

i 've read somewhere  that Frank edgar Banta said in the late 60 ' s that george  Gershwin used to play on some FVE ' tunes but couldn 't be credited on the 78rpm because of the exclusive contrat between Felix Arndt  or himself  & the record ' Co

In the fourth part of Jim Walsh’s interview with Fred Van Eps from the April 1956 Hobbies magazine Van Eps indeed lists George Gershwin as an accompanist:

“Which reminds me that this would be a good time to list the accompanists I have had, in the order in which they played for me: William E. Mac Clymont, Frank P. Banta, Charles L. Van Baar, Belle Harty, Charles A. Prince, Felix Arndt, George Gershwin, Frank E. Banta and Robert Van Eps.”

I’m almost sure I’ve read this particular surprise fact somewhere else as well, with Van Eps citing Gershwin as Banta jrs’s or Arndt’s “fill in,” but I can’t for the life of me at the moment remember where. I believe in that same note it’s confirmed that Gershwin did not ever record with Van Eps, however, though who knows.

Joel, in keeping with this topic, does your copy have the piano parts? If not, and you’d like them, I can scan and post a pdf from a copy I’ve got, which could be added to the tutor library. (And just to add to the plaudits, I’ve really enjoyed all your videos and playing as well, especially your Horace Weston renditions.)

I am a fan of Weston ; ).

I have the piano parts, but the book I bought was banjo only.  In fact, I had all the banjo parts too, I just wanted to see them complete in order.  It tuned out that it was worth it for the other content.

Now this interview in Hobbies Magazine-- I have not read that (hint, hint-- I'd return the favor somehow if I can).

Cool info, guys. I have a copy of that "Hobbies" interview buried in the stack somewhere but I haven't seen it in 10 yrs. I think Howard Weilmuenster sent it to me. Howard is one of the best sources for FVE info...if not the best.

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