Will H. Vodery, an overlooked African-American pioneer in Broadway orchestration, composed "Carolina Fox Trot" during ragtime's peak. Published in 1914 with cover art depicting fashionable dancers :cite[1]:cite[4], this fox trot emerged alongside the dance craze sparked by Billy Kent and Jeanette Warner :cite[3]:cite[4]. Though structured as traditional ragtime piano music, Vodery included playful innovations like instructing performers to "clap hands" and "knock on piano with knuckles" :cite[3]. His significance extends beyond composition: he later became Duke Ellington's mentor, imparting advanced chromatic techniques that shaped jazz orchestration :cite[5]. Recorded by the Victor Military Band weeks after publication (October 1914), it captured the transitional moment between ragtime and early jazz :cite[3].