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Lou Black

Early jazz banjoist. "Lew" (or) "Lou" Black played with "New Orleans Rhythm Kings" and with Jelly Roll Morton, among others. From the mid-20s onwards he worked as a staff musician on radio WHO in Des Moines, IA. Black retired from music in 1931 and became a businessman. He got back into music in the early 1960s but his revived music career was cut short when he died from a heart attack while still recuperating from a car accident in 1965. The inlay at the 11th fret of his 5-string banjo reads "Louis Black".  Born: June 08, 1901 in Rock Island, Illinois. Died: November 18, 1965 in Rock Island, Illinois.