Okay, I thought I found the earliest guitar player I could find. First I thought it was Lonnie Johnson (1894), but then I found Johnny St. Cyr (April 1890).
And as I’m creating this post I find out about Bud Scott (January 1890)…
Anyway, this post is going to be about Johnny St. Cyr!
As was common in those days, he was a banjo ánd guitar player.
“Johnny St. Cyr was best known for his work on Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven and Hot Five sessions.
He played in the National, Tuxedo, and Magnolia orchestras, accompanied Fate Marable on the S.S. Capitol riverboat and Armand John (A.J.) Piron, and, in Chicago, was a member of King Oliver’s band and Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers.
The last five years of his life he spent as bandleader of the Young Men From New Orleans at Disneyland in Los Angeles.”
He also composed the standard “Oriental Strut”:
I chose to transcribe this recording however:
This is actually taken from an interview session with Alan Lomax in 1949, which you can find here:
And as a sidenote: Alan Lomax (1915 - 2002) was a folklorist and ethnomusicologist, recognized for his cultural advocacy, scholarly work, field collections, and public programs.
You can grab the pdf below: