Elmer Chester Snowden (October 9, 1900 – May 14, 1973) was an American banjo player of the Jazz Age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and launched the careers of many top musicians.
Biography
Elmer Snowden was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, and the 1920 Federal Census lists him still living at home, employed as a "musician in a dance hall."
Snowden was the original leader of the Washingtonians, a group he brought to New York City from the capital in 1923. which contained the nucleus of what later became his orchestra.
Although Snowden continued to be musically active throughout his life, after the mid-1930s, with the retirement of his long-time musical partner Bob Fuller, his career was one of relative obscurity in New York. He continued to play through to the 1950s, but outside the limelight.