Sam Wooding
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Samuel David Wooding (17 June 1895 – 1 August 1985) was an American
jazz pianist Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instru ...
,
arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
and
bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or ...
living and performing in Europe and the United States.


Career

Born in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States, between 1921 and 1923 Wooding was a member of
Johnny Dunn Johnny Dunn (February 19, 1897 – August 20, 1937) was an American traditional jazz trumpeter and vaudeville performer, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He is probably best known for his work during the 1920s with musicians such as Perry ...
's Original Jazz Hounds, one of several Dunn-led line-ups that recorded in New York around that time for the Columbia label. Wooding led several big bands in the United States and abroad.


1925 European tour

Wooding and his band had developed a floor show for the 1923 opening of the
Nest Club The Nest Club was a cabaret in Harlem, more specifically an afterhours club, at 169 West 133rd Street – a street known then both as "Swing Street" and "Jungle Alley" – two doors east of Seventh Avenue, downstairs. The club, operating under the ...
, and in 1925, while performing at
Smalls Paradise Smalls Paradise (often called Small's Paradise and Smalls' Paradise, and not to be confused with Smalls Jazz Club), was a nightclub in Harlem, New York City. Located in the basement of 2294 Seventh Avenue at 134th Street, it opened in 1925 and ...
, a Russian-American
impresario An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. Hist ...
booked Wooding and his band – as "the Chocolate Kiddies" – as well as his revue performers for a European tour, performing in Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. The cast of ''Chocolate Kiddies'' included singer
Adelaide Hall Adelaide Louise Hall (20 October 1901 – 7 November 1993) was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her long career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death and she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hal ...
, The Three Eddies, singer
Lottie Gee Lottie Gee ''(née'' Charlotte O. Gee; 17 August 1886 Millboro, Virginia – 13 January 1973 Los Angeles) was an American entertainer who performed in shows and musicals during the Harlem Renaissance. She is perhaps best known as a performer ...
, Rufus Greenlee and Thaddeus Drayton, Bobbie and Babe Goins, and Charles Davis. While in Berlin, the band, recorded several selections for the Berlin-based Vox label. File:Ladnier.png, 1925 photo taken at the Vox Phonograph Studio — Sam Wooding and his Orchestra; Seated, left to right: Tommy Ladnier (trumpet), John Warren (tuba) (behind), Sam Wooding (piano/leader),
Willie Lewis William T. Lewis ''(né'' Willie Meria Tawlton Lewis; 10 June 1905 – 13 January 1971) was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. Career Lewis was born Cleburne, Texas, United States. He grew up in Dallas and played in variety shows as ...
(reeds), George Howe (1892–1936) (drums). Standing, left to right:
Herb Flemming Herb Flemming (April 5, 1898 – October 3, 1976) was an American jazz trombonist and vocalist who played extensively in Europe. Early life Flemming was born Nicolaiih El-Michelle, and was of North African descent. Flemming studied music an ...
(trombone),
Eugene Sedric Gene Sedric ''(né'' Eugene Hall Cedric; June 17, 1907, St. Louis, Missouri – April 3, 1963, New York City) was an American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He acquired the nickname "Honey Bear" in the 1930s because of his large camelha ...
(reeds), Johnny Mitchell (banjo), Bobby Martin (trumpet),
Garvin Bushell Garvin Bushell ''(né'' Garvin Lamont Payne; September 25, 1902 – October 31, 1991) was an American woodwind multi-instrumentalist. Biography Bushell was born in Springfield, Ohio, to Alexander Payne, Jr. (1875–1908) and Effie Penn ''( ...
(reeds), Maceo Elmer Edwards (1900–1988) (trumpet).Not pictured:
Arthur Lange Arthur Lange (April 16, 1889 – December 7, 1956) was a United States bandleader and Tin Pan Alley composer of popular music. He composed music for over 120 films, including ''Grand Canary'' and '' Woman on the Run''. Lange shared an Oscar nomi ...
(1889–1956), Arthur Johnston (1898–1954), arrangers


1926 Russian tour


1927 Argentine tour

In the year 1927, just a few months before the Oito Batutas started their tour in southern Brazil in Florianópolis, and four years after the Brazilian musicians passed through Argentina, an orchestra that would be referred to as one of the first public contacts debuted in Buenos Aires Argentine with the so-called black jazz. Sam Wooding (Philadelphia, Pa, 6/17/1895 - 8/1/1985), pianist, arranger and bandleader, joins his orchestra, in 1925, to a magazine show called Chocolate Kiddies, with which he leaves, that year, on an excursion to Europe. There, the band separates from the troupe and continues to perform in several countries on the continent, before heading to South America in 1927. Wooding will return to Europe, touring intensively between 1928 and 1931. For Pujol (2004, p.24 -27), Sam Wooding's was one of the first - and musically the best, because "de formación más compacta y de mejores solistas" - orchestras that made the Argentine public aware of a type of jazz after ragtime, more syncopated and very marked by improvisation. It would be Humberto Cairo himself, still in full activity as a businessman for Empire and Maipo, to bring Sam Wooding's orchestra to Argentina, apparently with a contract ended on a businessman's trip to Europe. The group will debut at the Empire on April 8, 1927, in a double session - at 6:30 pm - 11:00 pm - and, following the same initial script of the Eight Batutas in December 1922, they will also start playing at Maipo from the day 11, integrating a magazine called La Mejor Revista. The newspapers had been announcing for several days what would be the debut of, as announced in La Nación on April 3, "el jazz más formidable del mundo", or, still in the same newspaper, two days later, "el mejor jazz of black Americans ". The ads invariably highlighted the fact that it was a group of black, or colored, musicians.


1929 European tour

In 1929, with slightly different personnel, Wooding's orchestra made more recordings in Barcelona and Paris for the
Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...
and
Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
labels.


Career (continued)

Wooding did return to America in 1934. On 14 February 1934, Wooding and his orchestra were featured at
The Apollo The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a n ...
theater in
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
in a Clarence Robinson production titled ''Chocolate Soldiers'', starring the
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
star
Adelaide Hall Adelaide Louise Hall (20 October 1901 – 7 November 1993) was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her long career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death and she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Hal ...
. The show ran for a limited engagement and was highly praised by the press and helped establish The Apollo as Harlem's premier theater. It was the first major production staged at the newly renovated theater. Wooding returned to Europe, performing on the Continent, in Russia and England throughout most of the 1930s. Wooding's long stays overseas made him virtually unknown at home, but Europeans were among the staunchest jazz fans anywhere, and they loved what the band had to offer. "We found it hard to believe, but the Europeans treated us with as much respect as they did their own symphonic orchestras," he recalled in a 1978 interview. "They loved our music, but they didn’t quite understand it, so I made it a load easier for them by incorporating such melodies as "Du holder Abendstern" from ''
Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...
'' - syncopated, of course. They called it blasphemy, but they couldn't get enough of it. That would never have happened back here in the States. Here they looked on jazz as something that belonged in the gin mills and sporting houses, and if someone had suggested booking a blues singer like
Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and ...
, or even a white girl like Nora Bayes, on the same bill as
Ernestine Schumann-Heink Ernestine Schumann-Heink (15 June 186117 November 1936) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American operatic dramatic contralto of German Bohemian descent. She was noted for the flexibility and wide range of her voice. Early life She was born Ernes ...
, it would have been regarded as a joke in the poorest of taste."Interview with Chris Albertson for ''Official Souvenir Program of Spoleto Festival U.S.A. - 1978.'' Returning home in the late 1930s, when World War II seemed a certainty, Wooding began formal studies of music, attained a degree, and began teaching full-time, counting among his students trumpeter
Clifford Brown Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", an ...
. From 1937 to 1941, Wooding led and toured with the Southland Spiritual Choir. In the early 1970s, Sam Wooding formed another big band and took it to Switzerland for a successful concert, but this venture was short-lived.


Death

Wooding died August 1, 1985, in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
at Saint Luke's Hospital.


Bibliography

* Williams, Iain Cameron (2002)
Underneath A Harlem Moon
Chapter 6: The Chocolate Kiddies Come to Town - is devoted to the 1925 ''Chocolate Kiddies'' tour.


References


External links


Thaddeus Drayton collection
at NYPL {{DEFAULTSORT:Wooding, Sam American jazz pianists American male pianists Continental jazz pianists Dixieland pianists American jazz bandleaders 1895 births 1985 deaths Musicians from Philadelphia 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians