Tricky Sam Nanton

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Tricky Sam Nanton · Joe Nanton, known as Tricky Sam, was an American trombonist in Duke Ellington's orchestra. He was born in 1904 in New York to immigrants from the British West Indies and first played in Washington, D.C., including in the bands of Cliff Jackson and Elmer Snowden. In 1926 he reluctantly took the place of his friend Charlie Irvis with Ellington, and stayed there until his early death in 1946. Together with Lawrence Brown he formed the backbone of the trombone section.

Music and breakthrough

Nanton was a pioneer of the plunger, the rubber mute that you hold in front of the bell of the horn. In 1921 he heard Johnny Dunn do it on the trumpet and realised that it could also be done on trombone. Together with the trumpeter Bubber Miley he created the typical wah-wah sound. Their growling, almost speaking sounds formed the core of the band's early jungle sound, which arose in the late 1920s at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Nanton used a straight trumpet mute in the bell, a large plunger outside it and meanwhile shaped vowels with his mouth, so that the trombone seemed to talk. He kept the details secret until his death. He got his nickname from the alto saxophonist Otto Hardwick.

Influence

Nanton can be heard on East St. Louis Toodle-oo, Black and Tan Fantasy and The Mooche, among others. After Miley left in 1929 he taught Cootie Williams the growling techniques. Many brass players of the swing era adopted his sound. He died in 1946 of a stroke during a tour.

Listening