Born Earl Lavon Freeman on October 2, 1922, on the South Side of Chicago, Von (or “Vonski,” to use his universally known nickname) grew up in a musical household that also gave us his younger brothers George, a well-known Chicago guitarist, and drummer Bruz, who retired from music in the 1960s after a series of records on Contemporary with the Hampton Hawes Trio.

As a toddler, Von heard Louis Armstrong not in a dance hall but in his own living room, when Armstrong (a family friend) would come to visit. Fats Waller also visited the Freeman household. To this day, Von will point at the beat up piano in his living room and say, Fats Waller played that piano. At age 6, Von broke the horn off his father s Victrola, pieced it together with a wooden mouthpiece, and started wailing into his very first saxophone.

His father relented (if only to protect his prized Victrola!) and bought young Von a real instrument; by age 12, he was playing in a nightclub in Gary, Indiana, sporting a large hat to cover his youthful features. He turned down an offer from Earl “Fatha” Hines to stay in school, where he would learn even more about music than if he d gone on the road with Hines.

Von attended DuSable High School, where he studied under the famed band director and educator Captain Walter Dyett whose instruction and discipline Von credits to this day. In the early 1940s, he performed with Horace Henderson’s Orchestra before heading off to the Navy where he took part in the Great Lakes Experience, the military s historic experiment in desegregating the armed services through music by preparing black bands to perform for white sailors.