Chicago, mid-'80s — the Roland Axis years
The Story
Irwin Larry Eberhart II — Chip E. — was behind the counter at Importes Etc., the Chicago record store where every DJ in the city came to dig, when the music played at The Warehouse got its shorthand: house. He didn't just witness the naming. He put it on a record.
The 1985 Jack Trax EP — cut with Joe Smooth and Kurt Landrum at Reel to Reel Studios — was the first release to carry the words house and jack. A year later, Street Mix magazine put him on its debut cover — but the title that fits is the one on his cap: The Architect of House Music. House didn't just happen; it was designed. As VP of A&R at DJ International he produced Frankie Knuckles' debut and helped launch Joe Smooth, Lidell Townsell, and more — and in 1987 became the first Chicago artist in rotation on all three major Chicago stations at once.
Decades later, Carl Cox — who calls Time to Jack the record that made him want to be a DJ — brought Chip E. to his Melbourne studio to remake it. The result, Time 2 Jack, landed on Intec. From Ultra Miami to Sisyphos Berlin to Movement Detroit, the jack goes on.
- 1982First residency, behind the decks at The Rink
- 1985Jack Trax EP — "house" and "jack" hit vinyl
- 1986Street Mix cover story · produces Frankie Knuckles' debut
- 1987First Chicago artist on WBMX, WGCI & B96 simultaneously
- 2005Produces the documentary The UnUsual Suspects
- 2018Ultra Miami 20th anniversary · featured in What We Started (Netflix)
- 2019Time 2 Jack with Carl Cox on Intec
- 2024Headlines Wicker Park Fest, Chicago
