Sam Wooding

Who was Sam Wooding?

Sam Wooding was an expatriate American jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader living and performing in Europe and the United States.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1921 and 1923, Wooding was a member of Johnny Dunn's Original Jazz Hounds, one of several Dunn-led lineups that recorded in New York around that time for the Columbia label.

He led several big bands in the United States and abroad. His orchestra was at Harlem's Smalls' Paradise in 1925 when a Russian impresario booked it as the pit band for a show titled The Chocolate Kiddies, scheduled to open in Berlin later that year, featuring music by Duke Ellington and starring the performers Lottie Gee and Adelaide Hall. While in Berlin, the band, featuring such musicians as Doc Cheatham, Willie Lewis, Tommy Ladnier, Gene Sedric, and Herb Flemming, recorded several selections for the Vox label.

In 1929, with slightly different personnel, Wooding's orchestra made more recordings in Barcelona and Paris for the Parlophone and Pathé labels.

Wooding did return to America in 1934.