The Cobalt Rhythm Kings!
Winners of the 2010 New Haven Advocate Grand Band Slam for Best Blues Band!
FINALIST -- 2011 Connecticut Blues Challenge!
The Cobalt Rhythm Kings!
Winners of the 2010 New Haven Advocate Grand Band Slam for Best Blues Band!
FINALIST -- 2011 Connecticut Blues Challenge!
Wendell Jones -- bass and vocals
Wendell, who keeps The Cobalt Rhythm Kings in touch with its funkier side, has worked as a musician on three "coasts" -- in New Haven, his current longtime home on the East Coast, in Chicago and along the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah.
A native of the South Side of Chicago, Wendell got started early, playing at Chicago's famed Checkerboard Lounge and opening for the likes of James Brown and Ray Charles while still in high school, where he played in a soul band. He spent a decade out in Utah, playing with "Spaces," a jazz fusion group with which he recorded two albums, before moving to New Haven in the 1990s.
Wendell was an integral part of New Haven's early 90's alternative music scene, playing with "Kilgore Trout," among
other groups, and working as a founding member of the long-running New Haven
funk and R&B band, "Boogie Chillun.'"
In 1997, Wendell replaced founding Cobalt bassist Steve Klunk and has been a Cobalt Rhythm King ever since. Wendell is the longest-running member of the group other than harmonica player Mark Zaretsky. He also plays in one of Connecticut's leading reggae bands, I.N.I.T.Y., which can be booked by e-mailing EarthFunk2000@aol.com.
When not playing music, Wendell is an avid bicyclist and the coordinator of artists' models at Paier School of Art and other venues. He also works as a model himself.
We like to pitch The Cobalt Rhythm Kings as a rare chance for you all to come see Wendell work with his clothes on!
Mark Zaretsky Greg Benn Tom Smith
For more information, to join the Cobalt e-mail list or to book The Cobalt Rhythm Kings, call 203-415-1670 or e-mail: info(at)cobaltrhythmkings.com .
