Real name: John Wesley Work III

American composer, educator, choral director, and ethnomusicologist (born June 15, 1901 in Tullahoma, Tennessee - 17 May 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee)

A professor at Fisk University, Work made significant field recordings of African-American folk culture in Coahama County, Mississippi, in 1941 and 1942 as part of a joint study between Fisk University and the Archive of American Folk Song. Apart from being chairman of the Fisk University Department of Music, he also served as director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers from 1947 until 1956.