Lee Blair was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 banjoist and guitarist.

Blair was an autodidact on banjo, aside from a few lessons taken from Mike Pingitore

Mike Pingitore

Member of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.He was the elder brother of Eugene Pingitore also a notable banjo player who moved to Australia. Paul Whiteman discovered him playing tenor banjo and he became part of the rhythm section for Paul Whiteman's band....

, the banjoist for Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

. He played with Charlie Skeete in 1926-28, then with Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

 in 1928-30, also recording with Morton. He played with Billy Kato in 1930-31, then with Luis Russell

Luis Russell

Luis Russell was a jazz pianist and bandleader.Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano...

 (1934-35) and Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

 (1935-40). He worked part-time in music through the 1940s, then joined Wilbur De Paris

Wilbur de Paris

Wilbur de Paris was a trombone player and band leader, especially known for mixing New Orleans jazz style with Swing.De Paris was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where his father, Sidney G...

's New Orleans Jazz Band in the 1950s. In the 1960s he played less, concentrating on raising chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

s on a farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

, but appeared at the 1964 World's Fair with Danny Barker

Danny Barker

Danny Barker , born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz banjoist, singer, guitarist, songwriter, ukelele player and author from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band...

 and Eddie Gibbs

Eddie Gibbs

Eddie Gibbs is an American jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bassist.Gibbs began his career late in the 1920s, playing with Wilbur Sweatman, Eubie Blake, and Billy Fowler. As a banjoist he was strongly influenced by Elmer Snowden. He played with Edgar Hayes from 1937 and played with him on a tour of...

. He never recorded as a leader, but appears on record with Morton, Russell, Armstrong, and De Paris, as well as with Dick Cary

Dick Cary

Dick Cary was an American jazz pianist, trumpet and alto horn player, and prolific arranger and composer....

, Pee Wee Erwin

Pee Wee Erwin

Pee Wee Erwin was an American jazz trumpeter.-Biography:Erwin started on trumpet at age four. He played in several territory bands before joining the groups of Joe Haymes and Isham Jones...

, and Leonard Gaskin

Leonard Gaskin

Leonard Gaskin was an American jazz bassist born in New York City.Gaskin played on the early bebop scene at Minton's and Monroe's in New York in the early 1940s...

among others.