Samuel David Wooding (17 June 1895–1 August 1985)[1] was an American jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader living and performing in Europe and the United States.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States,[1] between 1921 and 1923 Wooding was a member of Johnny Dunn's Original Jazz Hounds,[2] one of several Dunn-led line-ups that recorded in New York around that time for the Columbia label.
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.
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.
"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 - syncopated, of course.
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, or even a white girl like Nora Bayes, on the same bill as Ernestine Schumann-Heink, it would have been regarded as a joke in the poorest of taste.