Will Vodery

Will Vodery (October 8, 1885 – November 18, 1951) was an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and arranger, and one of the few black Americans of his time to make a name for himself as a composer on Broadway, working largely for Florenz Ziegfeld. He had offices at the Gaiety Theatre office building in Times Square.

Early life

Vodery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1885; his mother Sarah J. Vodery was a pianist and his father was a teacher at Lincoln University. From an early age Vodery's family rented rooms to theatrical performers, exposing Will to many talented black performers at the turn of the 20th century, including members of the Williams & Walker Co. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on scholarship, where he studied with Hugh A. Clark. His mother made her home Frederick Douglass's Baltimore headquarters when he was visiting the city. Author Barry Ulanov wrote of this relationship: "From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his chromatic convictions, his uses of the tones ordinarily extraneous to the diatonic scale, with the consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, its broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become customary to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke – Delius, Debussy and Ravel – to direct contact with their music. Actually his serious appreciation of those and other modern composers, came after his meeting with Vodery."

From 1929 to 1932 Vodery was arranger and musical director for Fox Films in Hollywood. Following his time at Fox, Vodery moved back to New York City, where he continued to arrange music for such shows as Shuffle Along of 1933 and several editions of Leonard Harper's revues at the Cotton Club, a cultural landmark located in Harlem. In 1942 he was musical director for Ed Sullivan's Harlem Cavalcade. Blue Monday (1922), opera by George Gershwin, orchestrations by Will Vodery in consultation with the composer From Dixie to Broadway (1924), musical, all music and orchestrations by the composer Waikiki Is Calling Me (1924), waltz for piano Ziegfeld Follies (1924-1937), arranger and orchestrator for Fox Film Corporation Blackbirds (1924–1938), musical revues, arranger and orchestrator Show Boat (1927), arranger and orchestrator Keep Shufflin' (1928), arranger and orchestrator Swing Along (1929), co-composer with Will Marion Cook, also arranger and orchestrator Such Men Are Dangerous (1930), orchestrator Hills of Old New Hampshire (1933), song The Darktown Poker Club (1946), musical interlude, all music and orchestrations