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Roaring 20s: Sam Wooding's Orchestra - Shanghai Shuffle, 1925

3,463 views · Published 17 November 2018 · 2:47 · Indexed 17 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2018 · Music

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Sam Wooding’s Orchestra – Shanghai Shuffle, Shimmy (Rodemich & Conley), Vox, 1925 (Germany) 

NOTE: Sam Wooding (b. 1895 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – d. 1985) American jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader living and performing in Europe and the United States In early 1920s, Wooding’s dance band played in New York at popular dance venues such as the The Nest, Club Alabam or the Small Paradise in Harlem. In 1925 Wooding’s band was contracted by the Russian impresario to be the orchestra for a new musical revue called Chocolate Kiddies which was being formed to tour Europe. Chocolate Kiddies was built around the vaudeville team of Rufus and Drayton and featured performances by Wooding's eleven piece orchestra, thirty chorus girls, dancers and comedians. Edith Wilson and Adeline Hall were vocalists in the show and Tommy Ladnier was the star soloist. Chocolate Kiddies also included music by Duke Ellington and Jo Trent. During their stay in Berlin in 1925, Wooding’s band waxed several sides for the Grammophon and the Vox Schallplatten, both companies eagerly promoting new trends in dance music in Europe. Wooding's orchestra stayed with Chocolate Kiddies for around a year and then extensively toured Europe without the revue playing in Sweden, Spain, France, Switzerland, Istanbul, Turkey, Romania, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium and Russia. In 1927 they traveled to South America and played in Buenos Aires. In 1929, with slightly different personnel, Wooding's orchestra made more recordings in Barcelona and Paris for the Parlophone and Pathé labels. Wooding's long stays overseas made him virtually unknown at home, but Europeans were among his staunchest jazz fans anywhere. He returned to America in 1932 and reformed the band until 1935; during this period Sidney Bechet was with the band briefly. After 1935 Wooding left the music business to attend college and earn a master's degree in music from the University of Pennsylvania. He also led and toured with the Southland Spiritual Choir. In 1970, Sam Wooding returned to bandleading, he formed an orchestra with which he traveled to Switzerland for a successful concert, but this venture ended after several performances.

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