Lee Blair
Lee L. Blair (born October 10, 1903 in Savannah (Georgia) , † October 15, 1966 in New York City ) was an American jazz guitarist and banjo player .
Blair was a self-taught banjo, apart from taking a few lessons from Mike Pingitore , the banjo player with Paul Whiteman . He then played from 1925 to 1928 in dance schools with Charlie Skeete and Bill Benford, then until 1930 with Jelly Roll Morton , with whom he also made recordings. 1930/31 he worked with Billy Kato , then in the orchestra of Luis Russell (1934-35) at Connie's Inn and with the same orchestra under the direction of Louis Armstrong (1935-40).
In the 1940s he was only employed as a freelance part-time musician; from the mid-1950s he played in Wilbur De Paris ' New Orleans Jazz Band ; In 1957 he went on a tour of Africa. In the 1960s his musician activities declined and he became a poultry farmer on a farm in upstate New York. In the 1960s he performed occasionally in New York; so in 1964 at the World's Fair with Danny Barker and Eddie Gibbs . In the course of his career he did not record under his own name, but took part in recordings by Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Russell, Louis Armstrong and Wilbur De Paris; also on recordings by Dick Cary , Pee Wee Erwin and Leonard Gaskin .
Web links
Lexical entry
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Blair, Lee |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Blair, Lee L. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz guitarist and banjo player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 10, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Savannah (Georgia) |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 15, 1966 |
| Place of death | New York City |