SNOWDEN, ELMER CHESTER

SNOWDEN, ELMER CHESTER (POPS). Jazz guitarist (9 October 1900 in Baltimore, Maryland; 14 May 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). He played guitar, banjo, and mandolin as a child. In 1914 he began playing professionally in a local Baltimore theater; in 1915 he joined Eubie Blake's band and remained with the group through the period of Joe Rochester's leadership (1916-19). He then went to Washington, D.C., where he played with Louis Thomas at the Howard Theater and with Claude Hopkins...