Lee Blair (musician)

Lee Blair (October 10, 1903, Savannah, Georgia October 15, 1966, New York City) was an American jazz banjoist and guitarist.

Blair was an autodidact on banjo, aside from a few lessons taken from Mike Pingitore, the banjoist for Paul Whiteman. He played with Charlie Skeete in 1926-28, then with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928-30, also recording with Morton. He played with Billy Kato in 1930-31, then with Luis Russell (1934–35) and Louis Armstrong (1935-40). He worked part-time in music through the 1940s, then joined Wilbur De Paris's New Orleans Jazz Band in the 1950s. In the 1960s he played less, concentrating on raising chickens on a farm, but appeared at the 1964 World's Fair with Danny Barker and Eddie Gibbs. He never recorded as a leader, but appears on record with Morton, Russell, Armstrong, and De Paris, as well as with Dick Cary, Pee Wee Erwin, and Leonard Gaskin among others.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.