Emanuel Sayles

A longtime fixture in New Orleans, Emanuel Sayles was a very important supportive participant and an intermittent soloist for many years. Although he examined violin and viola in early stages, Sayles was self-taught on banjo and electric guitar. After attending senior high school in Pensacola, Florida, he shifted to New Orleans where he used William Ridgley’s Tuxedo Orchestra. Sayles caused Destiny Marable, Armand Piron, and Sidney Desvignes on riverboats and in 1929 documented using the Jones-Collins Astoria Popular Eight. After shifting to Chicago in 1933, he led his personal band and worked well extensively like a sideman in both jazz and blues configurations, documenting with Roosevelt Sykes. He shifted back again to New Orleans in 1949, carrying out with a lot of the best regional players including George Lewis (who he toured Japan with in 1963-1964) and Lovely Emma Barrett. Sayles worked well in Cleveland with Punch Miller in 1960 and spent a couple of years (1965-1967) in Chicago operating as a residence musician at Jazz Ltd. After returning to New Orleans in 1968, he used the Preservation Hall Jazz Music group and became a global tourist. Sayles, who documented with Lewis, Barrett, Punch Miller, Peter Bocage, Child Thomas Valentine, Earl Hines (1975), and Louis Cottrell, amongst others, also led his personal classes for GHB (1962), Nobility (1963), Dixie (1969), as well as the Italian Big Lou label (1969).