Solid!

Born

• October 9, 1900
• Baltimore, MD

Died

• May 14, 1973
• Philadelphia, PA

Full Name

• Elmer Chester Snowden

Marriage

• Gertie Wells

Elmer Snowden

Elmer Snowden was one of the most talented banjo players of the jazz age. Today, however, he has largely been forgotten, mainly due to his lack of recording credits. Though Snowden was a hard-working musician and bandleader few of his many groups recorded. Those that did only entered the studio to back other artists. This absence of an audio legacy is even more frustrating when one considers the quality of musicians who often worked for him. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Carter, and Chick Webb were among those who served with Snowden at one time or another.

Snowden grew up in Baltimore and learned the guitar and banjo at an early age. He debuted professionally with pianist Addie Booze in 1914. In 1915 he join Eubie Blake's orchestra and remained with the group when it was taken over by Joe Rochester in 1916. When Rochester passed away in 1919 Snowden moved to Washington, DC, where he worked in a trio led by Duke Ellington. In 1920 he teamed up with pianist Gertie Wells and they soon married. In 1921 he worked briefly with Claude Hopkins before forming his own band, which came to be called the Washingtonians. The new group included Ellington and would eventually become Duke's orchestra. After Snowden brought the band to New York in 1923 his musicians had a falling out with him over missing funds and fired him, electing Ellington as leader in his place.

In March 1924 Snowden joined the Broadway Jones Band and was appointed leader. In 1925 he briefly rejoined the Washingtonians under Ellington and later ended up in the Ford Dabney Orchestra. In late 1925 Snowden formed his own group again. During the late 1920s he had as many as five bands working under him, one of which appeared in the Vitaphone musical short Smash Your Baggage. By the mid-1930s, however, Snowden's hot jazz style had fallen out of favor with the listening public. He continued to perform although he was virtually ignored. He eventually left New York after a dispute with the local musician's union and moved to Philadelphia, where he began to teach music.

Around 1940 Snowden settled his dispute with the union and returned to New York, where he worked with small groups of his own and with the Joe Sullivan Trio. During the 1950s he led his own quartet and toured the United States and Canada. He later moved back to Philadelphia and formed a new quartet. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Snowden was briefly rediscovered and made several recordings. Ironically, these were the first recordings released under his own name.

In 1963 Snowden moved to California, where he taught at Berkeley and played in various groups, including those of his own and with Turk Murphy. In 1969 he moved back to Philadelphia. Elmer Snowden passed away in 1973.