Van Eps Plays "Hot Foot Sue"

[Shawn McSweeny]

Fred Van Eps never recorded "Hot Foot Sue" . . . . or did he?

Late in 1958, the nearly 80 year old Van Eps was caught on reel tape warming up. He launched into the first few measures and stopped. Next time through he added a few measures more. Over the next seven minutes or so he gradually rebuilt the sections of a piece which he probably had not played for years. His accompanist was his son Rob, who remained silent for several minutes, apparently unfamiliar with the piece.

I have edited the best of the starts and stops into a performance. The score below is a pretty close transcription of Fred's arrangement. It is similar to the A notation score published in 1896.

At the end Fred is heard saying : "It's a good tune. Do you like that? We used to play that a lot at the theater. All the banjo players played that way back, years ago."

[Shawn McSweeny]

Here's a link to the 1896 A notation score :

Hot%20Foot%20Sue%20-%201896%20A%20Notn.pdf

[Jody Stecher]

WOW.

[Shawn McSweeny]

Yeah, pretty cool having total recall and supreme plucking skills at 80.

[Joel Hooks]

Thanks for this Shawn, I've listened to the recording many times. 

I've not seen the A notation so I it was nice to get and I played it last night.  I have previously played the "Vess Ossman" arrangement and found it rather anemic. 

[Shawn McSweeny]

 Joel : I know you're an FVE fan, so glad you enjoyed this.

Agreed that both posted arrangements are far richer than the Ossman score. It's possible the Ossman HFS score was watered down by its publisher, as was certainly the case for the  "Ragtime Medley" score.

BTW, I'll be posting my transcription of the RM recording in coming days, with digital playback, allowing you to both read and hear its richness compared to the CE score.