Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton (February 1, 1904 – July 20, 1946) was an American trombonist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

From 1923 to 1924, Nanton worked with Frazier’s Harmony Five. A year later, he performed with Snowden. At the age of 22, Nanton found his niche in Duke Ellington’s Orchestra when he reluctantly took the place of his friend Charlie Irvis in 1926, and remained with Ellington until his early death in 1946. Nanton, along with Lawrence Brown, anchored the trombone section.

Nanton was one of the great pioneers of the plunger mute. In 1921, he heard Johnny Dunn playing the trumpet with a plunger, which Nanton realized could be used to similar effect on the trombone. Together with Ellington’s trumpeter Bubber Miley, Nanton is largely responsible for creating the characteristic Wah-wah, or wa-wa, effect. Their highly expressive growl and plunger sounds were the main ingredient in the band’s early “jungle” sound that evolved during the band’s late 1920s engagement at Harlem‘s “Cotton Club“. According to Barney Bigard, Nanton “grabbed his plunger. He could use that thing, too.