{{short description|American musician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}{{Use American English|date=December 2020}} thumb|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''',<ref>{{cite news|title=See the Speediest Colored Revue in America!|date=August 11, 1926|page=3|work=Detroit Free Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69285617/wen-talbert-the-sultan-of-jazz/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> was an American pianist, cellist, and jazz bandleader.{{sfn|Brooks|2004|p=486}}
Talbert attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the latter for seven years.<ref name="chronicleobit">{{cite news|date=January 6, 1951|title=Noted Musician Dies After Brief Illness|page=6|work=Michigan Chronicle|id={{ProQuest|2395726601}}}}</ref> Early in his career, Talbert was a member of the Four Harmony Kings,<ref name="defenderobit">{{cite news|date=December 30, 1950|title=Wendell P. Talbert, Choirmaster, Dies|page=21|work=Chicago Defender|id={{ProQuest|492900966}}}}</ref> a vocal group that performed in the Broadway musical ''Shuffle Along'' (1921).{{sfn|Brooks|2004|p=455}} He later led a band called Wen Talbert's Chocolate Fiends;<ref name="chronicleobit" />{{Efn|Or "friends". The name is rendered both ways. See, e.g., {{cite magazine|title=Talbert Returns to Loew|magazine=Billboard|date=March 10, 1928|page=14}} }} he was playing vaudeville shows with the Fiends as of 1926, when they appeared at the Pantages Theatre in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Wood|first1=E. J.|title=Pantages, San Francisco|magazine=Billboard|date=April 10, 1926|page=14}}</ref> During the 1920s, he recorded with Rosa Henderson and Lethia Hill.{{sfn|Brooks|2004|p=486}}
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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Helen Tamiris|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=2007-06-27|last=Tikkanen|first=Amy|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Tamiris|access-date=July 12, 2020|archive-date=May 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505185616/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Tamiris|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Manning|first=Susan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80dIBfJjBGsC|title=Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion|date=2004|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-3736-2|location=Minneapolis|pages=101|access-date=September 19, 2020}}</ref> During World War II, he worked as a musical director of the United Service Organizations.<ref name="chronicleobit" />
Talbert was briefly married to Florence Cole Talbert; they were separated as of 1916.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Turner|first=Patricia|year=1984|title=Our Divine Florence|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|volume=12|issue=1|pages=59|doi=10.2307/1214969|jstor=1214969}}</ref> He died in 1950.<ref name="defenderobit" />
== Notes == {{Notelist}} {{Reflist}}
== Sources == * {{Cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Tim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Me4pGCCVrIgC|title=Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890–1919|date=2004-02-24|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-02850-2|location=Urbana, Illinois}}
== External links == * {{Discogs artist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Talbert, Wen}} Category:1950 deaths Category:20th-century American musicians Category:Oberlin Conservatory of Music alumni Category:American vaudeville performers Category:Wilberforce University alumni Category:Year of birth missing