email address: chip@jazz-avenue.com Chip Moyer grew up in Pacific Palisades, California and started playing guitar when he 13 years old. By the time he was 16, he had developed an interest in jazz from listening to his parents Geoff and Mary Lynn Moyer’s old Miles Davis records.  Concurrently, he started taking lessons from a Bay Area guitarist named Bill Bentley who was versed in teaching jazz fundamentals.

During college at the University of Michigan, he spent a lot of time in Detroit listening to organ trios comprised of ex-road musicians. A few to note are the organist Andy Martin and tenor saxophonist Dezi McCullough.

After college, he began studying with Bill again and sitting in on the Sunday night jam sessions down at the Dodger Club in South Central Los Angeles (it is actually on the east side for those of you in the “know”). There he was given the opportunity to play by the Mickey Conway Trio which featured the late Jim Daniels on the guitar and Janelle Hawkins on the organ.

After honing his skills for the better part of a year, he took a hiatus when going to graduate school in Santa Barbara. From Santa Barbara, he moved to Philadelphia to attend Drexel University. There, he joined the Drexel Fusion Band and Jazz Ensemble. After two years with those organizations, he and three others (Jon Friesen on alto, Art Stephano on bass, and Jon Miller on drums) formed the “6th Street Quaternion” which stills performs regularly in the Philadelphia area under the direction of Art Stephano (www.6stq.com).

Since returning to Los Angeles in 1998, Chip has done some pickup gigs and has worked regularly with Jazz Avenue. He has also studied with bass player Karl McNeill in Philadelphia and Richard Hastings in Los Angeles. Currently, he is under the tutelage of Ron Berman. He is an avid collector of jazz CDs and besides Hank Mobley, some of his favorite artists are Grant Green, Dexter Gordon, and Sonny Stitt. His other hobbies include riding ATVs and playing beach volleyball. He is a big fan of the AVP (professional volleyball tour).

As for his day gig, he a member of the research staff at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California. He holds a B.S.E. in Engineering Physics from the University of Michigan (1989), an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara (1993), and a Ph.D. in EE from Drexel University (1998).

Chip playing at a Christmas Party in Philadelphia

Sitting in at an Anniversary Party for the "Fish Dish" in the San Fernando Valley