Emanuel Sayles: The Banjoist Who Followed the Music HomeEmanuel Sayles was born on January 31, 1907, in Pensacola, Florida, and began his musical education in the classical tradition, playing violin and viola as a child. But the jazz spirit was calling, and Sayles answered by teaching himself banjo and guitar, the instruments that would define his career and connect him to the early New Orleans jazz tradition.

Following the Music to New Orleans After high school, Sayles made the pilgrimage that so many musicians made: he relocated to New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, where…