Poster for Bassa Moona (1936), which featured Wen Talbert's orchestra.

Wendell P. Talbert (died 1950), better known as Wen Talbert and sometimes performing as the Sultan of Jazz,[1] was an American pianist, cellist, and jazz bandleader.[2]

Talbert attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the latter for seven years.[3] Early in his career, Talbert was a member of the Four Harmony Kings,[4] a vocal group that performed in the Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921).[5] He later led a band called Wen Talbert's Chocolate Fiends;[3][lower-alpha 1] he was playing vaudeville shows with the Fiends as of 1926, when they appeared at the Pantages Theatre in San Francisco.[6] During the 1920s, he recorded with Rosa Henderson and Lethia Hill.[2]

In the 1930s, Talbert led the Negro Chorus of the Federal Theatre Project, which performed in several Federal Theatre productions including Bassa Moona and How Long Brethren? (1937), a dance by Helen Tamiris.[7][8] During World War II, he worked as a musical director of the United Service Organizations.[3]

Talbert was briefly married to Florence Cole Talbert; they were separated as of 1916.[9] He died in 1950.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Or "friends". The name is rendered both ways. See, e.g., "Talbert Returns to Loew". Billboard. March 10, 1928. p. 14.
  1. ↑ "See the Speediest Colored Revue in America!". Detroit Free Press. August 11, 1926. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Brooks 2004, p. 486.
  3. 1 2 3 "Noted Musician Dies After Brief Illness". Michigan Chronicle. January 6, 1951. p. 6. ProQuest 2395726601.
  4. 1 2 "Wendell P. Talbert, Choirmaster, Dies". Chicago Defender. December 30, 1950. p. 21. ProQuest 492900966.
  5. ↑ Brooks 2004, p. 455.
  6. ↑ Wood, E. J. (April 10, 1926). "Pantages, San Francisco". Billboard. p. 14.
  7. ↑ Tikkanen, Amy (June 27, 2007). "Helen Tamiris". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  8. ↑ Manning, Susan (2004). Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-8166-3736-2. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  9. ↑ Turner, Patricia (1984). "Our Divine Florence". The Black Perspective in Music. 12 (1): 59. doi:10.2307/1214969. JSTOR 1214969.

Sources

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