Wheeling-Born Musician and Composer Will H. Dixon
Before his untimely death, Wheeling Hall of Fame member Chu Berry famously played tenor sax in Cab Calloway‘s Orchestra from 1937-1941. [1] By the time Berry joined the orchestra, Calloway had already developed his legendary style made famous by appearances in films such as the Betty Boop: Minnie the Moocher short (Paramount Pictures, 1932), Cab Calloway’s Hi-De-Ho (1934), and Stormy Weather (20th Century Fox, 1943), all long before his cameo in the 1980 Universal Studios cult classic, The Blue Brothers. “Clad in white tie and tails, dancing energetically, waving an oversized baton, and singing,” writes Alyn Shipton in his Calloway biography, Hi-De-Ho, “Cab Calloway is one of the most iconic figures in popular music.” [2]
But prior even to Calloway’s birth, Will H. Dixon initiated the style that would lead him to be dubbed the original dancing conductor. [3] James Weldon Johnson – American writer, civil rights activist, and early leader of the NAACP — wrote of Dixon: “All through a number he would keep his men together by dancing out the rhythm, generally in graceful, sometimes in grotesque, steps. Often an easy shuffle would take him across the whole front of the band. This style of directing not only got the fullest possible response from the men but kept them in just the right humour for the sort of music they were playing.” [4] By the time Calloway was born in 1907, Dixon was not only a famed stage conductor, but an accomplished singer, pianist, actor, comedian, playwright, and composer of both popular and classical music.
And he was a Wheeling native. Read More