Lou Black

Louis Thomas Black (June 8, 1901 – November 18, 1965) was prominent Jazz era banjo player, part of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings during the 1920s.[1]

Born in Rock Island, Illinois,[1] he began playing banjo during early childhood and became professional in 1917.[2] He played in the Carlisle Dance Orchestra during the 1920s.[2]

In 1921, he joined the famous New Orleans Rhythm Kings at Friar's Inn in Chicago. With this band, he participated to the first-ever interracial recording session with pianist Jelly Roll Morton.

He left the band in 1923 to play with other bands.[1] These included the Dixieland Jass Band, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, and Jean Goldkette's Jazz Orchestra.[2]

From 1928 until 1931, he was a staff musician for radio station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa.[2] He stopped playing banjo about the time the station was sold.[2] In a later interview he said that he had become unhappy with the banjo's having been displaced in music by the guitar and the bass, until it became a "taxi-driver's instrument."[1] He left music in 1931, but began playing again in 1961.[1][2]

He sat in with several bands during a brief stay in New York City,[2] then played gigs in Moline, Illinois from the fall of 1963.

While recovering in a Rock Island hospital from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, he suffered a fatal heart attack.