Fred Van Eps (December 30, 1878 – November 22, 1960) was an American

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

ist and banjo maker. The "Van Eps Recording Banjo" was a well-known model until 1930. He was the father of jazz guitarist

George Van Eps George Abel Van Eps (August 7, 1913 – November 29, 1998) was an American swing and mainstream jazz guitarist. Biography George Van Eps was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, into a family of musicians. His three brothers – Fred ...

Biography

Van Eps was born in Somerville, New Jersey, United States, and moved with his family to Plainfield in 1892. He learned to play the banjo and studied the

phonograph cylinder Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engra ...

recordings of

Vess Ossman Sylvester Louis "Vess" Ossman (August 21, 1868 – December 7, 1923) was a leading five-string banjoist and popular recording artist of the early 20th century. Biography Sylvester Louis Ossman was born in Hudson, New York, and made his firs ...

. In 1897 Van Eps was hired by Thomas Edison's National Phonograph Company in West Orange to work in studio engagements. Van Eps's cylinder recordings, often remakes of Ossman's tunes, sold well for Edison. Early

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...

banjo recordings by Van Eps included "A Bunch of Rags" (1900) and "A Ragtime Episode" (1902). He also recorded for a number of other companies, including

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

(from 1904) and Victor (from 1910). The Van Eps Trio recorded steadily from 1912 to 1922. He also led other groups, such as the Van Eps Quartet, the Van Eps Specialty Four, and the Van Eps Banjo Orchestra. In 1914, the latter group was one of the first to record for the American branch of the French

Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...

Company. In 1921, Orlando Kellum, inventor of the Photokinema

sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...

sound film system, filmed the Van Eps Trio in ''The Famous Van Eps Trio in a Bit of Jazz''. With Henry Burr, he formed a company that manufactured and sold the Van Eps Recording Banjo, modeled on the one he used in recordings and concerts. The banjo remained on the market until about 1930, when widespread use of electric recording removed the need for the loud volume produced by the Van Eps model. Fred had four musical sons: Fred Jr. (trumpet); George (guitar); Johnny (saxophone); and Bobby (piano). All became prominent in the 1920s and '30s. By the 1930s the banjo had fallen out of favor in popular music, and

gained fame as a studio guitarist, playing with

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conc ...

, Ray Noble, and

Red Norvo Red Norvo (born Kenneth Norville; March 31, 1908 – April 6, 1999) was an American musician, one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His reco ...

. Meanwhile, Fred Sr. was associated with the British banjo composer

Frank Lawes Frank Lawes (1894 – 1970) was an English banjo composer and performer from Acton, London. He composed a large number of well known banjo pieces which are still part of the standard repertoire and much recorded. He was unusual in playing a ...

and recorded some pieces with him. In the 1950s he attempted a comeback with a number of banjo recordings before his death in Burbank, California, at the age of 81. Van Eps also worked in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and influenced pre-bluegrass musicians like Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers.

References

External links

Fred Van Eps cylinder recordings
from the

UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive The Cylinder Audio Archive is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Library with streaming and downloadable versions of over 10,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1893 and the mid-1920s. The ...

at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

Library.
Audio of "Rag Pickings" at Library of Congress

Fred Van Eps recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Eps, Fred 1878 births 1960 deaths Musicians from Plainfield, New Jersey Musicians from Somerville, New Jersey 20th-century American musicians American banjoists Ragtime composers Pioneer recording artists