The Cobalt Rhythm Kings
New Haven, Connecticut, United States | Established. Jan 01, 1996 | SELF
Music
Press
Cobalt Rhythm Kings
cobaltrhythmkings.com
myspace.com/thecobaltrhythmkings
Mark Zaretsky, frontman and harmonica player for the Kings, is thrilled that his blues band took this year’s award. He says the Best Blues win is among the band’s crowning achievements, “especially coming in the midst of the toughest year ever to try to book the band.” And mind you, this is a group that has played the 2005 Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival, whose members have played with greats like former Muddy Waters sidemen Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Bob Margolin, and even opened for Etta James. The Kings, well-versed in blues literature, play a variety of subgenres, showcasing the music’s jazz, swing and rock influences.
- New Haven Advocate
Cobalt Rhythm Kings
cobaltrhythmkings.com
myspace.com/thecobaltrhythmkings
Mark Zaretsky, frontman and harmonica player for the Kings, is thrilled that his blues band took this year’s award. He says the Best Blues win is among the band’s crowning achievements, “especially coming in the midst of the toughest year ever to try to book the band.” And mind you, this is a group that has played the 2005 Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival, whose members have played with greats like former Muddy Waters sidemen Pinetop Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Bob Margolin, and even opened for Etta James. The Kings, well-versed in blues literature, play a variety of subgenres, showcasing the music’s jazz, swing and rock influences.
- New Haven Advocate
"This is an honestly solid release that shows more passion than the oodles of blues bands out there that wrongfully worship at the altar of Mayall and Clapton."
-- Craig Gilbert,
- New Haven Advocate
"This is an honestly solid release that shows more passion than the oodles of blues bands out there that wrongfully worship at the altar of Mayall and Clapton."
-- Craig Gilbert,
- New Haven Advocate
"I have to tell you. At 3AM, after listening to this CD several times, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to hug them all, or kill them all . . . Why? Because the beat was so hot, sleep was not going to happen that night . . .
Ladies, let me tell you, I was torn between wanting to take the vocalist, Mark Zaretsky, (who not only sings like he's making love to you, but whose harmonica sounds like an extension of his mouth (hmmmmmmm),) home with me, or dancing to the wonderful beat . . .
This CD has it all - Love, tribute, great lyrics, and a beat to get you up and moving, even if you were a Zombie . . . All I can say is WOW!!!!!
-- Joyce Remo
- Gayles Corner.com
"I have to tell you. At 3AM, after listening to this CD several times, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to hug them all, or kill them all . . . Why? Because the beat was so hot, sleep was not going to happen that night . . .
Ladies, let me tell you, I was torn between wanting to take the vocalist, Mark Zaretsky, (who not only sings like he's making love to you, but whose harmonica sounds like an extension of his mouth (hmmmmmmm),) home with me, or dancing to the wonderful beat . . .
This CD has it all - Love, tribute, great lyrics, and a beat to get you up and moving, even if you were a Zombie . . . All I can say is WOW!!!!!
-- Joyce Remo
- Gayles Corner.com
"Swinging ... and hot with a touch of California jump. Great!!!! For me 'Lover's Rock' and 'Cross-Eyeded Mama' are the top."
-- Marco Trabalza, Foligno, Italy Italian blues collector - High praise from across the pond . . .
"Swinging ... and hot with a touch of California jump. Great!!!! For me 'Lover's Rock' and 'Cross-Eyeded Mama' are the top."
-- Marco Trabalza, Foligno, Italy Italian blues collector - High praise from across the pond . . .
"Your tunes are hot and burnin' ... It reminds me of Little Charlie and the Night Cats sometimes. Play on!"
-- Thai slide guitarist and band leader Suchart Panpie, owner of the Beebop nightclub, Pai, Thailand
- Kudos from a Thai blues authority!
"Your tunes are hot and burnin' ... It reminds me of Little Charlie and the Night Cats sometimes. Play on!"
-- Thai slide guitarist and band leader Suchart Panpie, owner of the Beebop nightclub, Pai, Thailand
- Kudos from a Thai blues authority!
"The . . . Kings can often be found in local clubs, where (Cobalt leader Mark Zaretsky,) a harmonica fiend, blows through decades of music, from the '40s and '50s sounds of his Sweet Home Chicago to 21st-century originals."
-- Fran Fried - New Haven Register
"The . . . Kings can often be found in local clubs, where (Cobalt leader Mark Zaretsky,) a harmonica fiend, blows through decades of music, from the '40s and '50s sounds of his Sweet Home Chicago to 21st-century originals."
-- Fran Fried - New Haven Register
"They play some hot stuff up in New Haven, Connecticut"
- The Blue Highway.com
"They play some hot stuff up in New Haven, Connecticut"
- The Blue Highway.com
"On the US blues scene I found my new favourite . . . Their music is very fresh with deeeep feeling . . . Especially I like the beautiful hot harp melodic line together with swing, shuffle, boogie, funky guitar sound . . . THE COBALT RHYTHM KINGS are better than red pepper." - Jacek Trzmiel, Warsaw, Poland -- Polish blues collector
"On the US blues scene I found my new favourite . . . Their music is very fresh with deeeep feeling . . . Especially I like the beautiful hot harp melodic line together with swing, shuffle, boogie, funky guitar sound . . . THE COBALT RHYTHM KINGS are better than red pepper." - Jacek Trzmiel, Warsaw, Poland -- Polish blues collector
Poland's leading blues web site, www.blues.pl , recently listed The Cobalt Rhythm Kings among the best blues bands of 2003 -- number 73, right after Bonnie Raitt and before Otis Rush, Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials or Robert Cray!
- www.blues.pl
Poland's leading blues web site, www.blues.pl , recently listed The Cobalt Rhythm Kings among the best blues bands of 2003 -- number 73, right after Bonnie Raitt and before Otis Rush, Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials or Robert Cray!
- www.blues.pl
Discography
"HOT . . . Like Red Pepper," released in 2001 (re-released in 2002 with additional songs added) Cobalt Records.
Photos
Bio
Finalist -- Connecticut Blues Challenge
"Best Blues Band!" -- New Haven Advocate Grand Band Slam
The Cobalt Rhythm Kings are steeped in the jazzy jump blues of Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris and the Liggins brothers; the cool, raging West Coast swing blues of William Clarke, Rod Piazza and James Harman, and the hard-edged Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Junior Wells and Freddie King, to name a few.
Formed in April 1996 as the outgrowth of four guys thrown together onstage one winter Sunday night at the cafe nine blues jam in New Haven, Connecticut, The Cobalt Rhythm Kings have played everywhere from New York City's former premier blues club, Chicago B.L.U.E.S., to the New Haven Jazz Festival, where they opened on the New Haven Green for the late Son Seals in August 1999, to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas' "Art on the Edge" festival.
The band made its debut on the national stage on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005 at the 20th Annual Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival -- formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival -- in Helena, Arkansas.
Some other highlights: On Jan. 20,, 2007, The Cobalt Rhythm Kings played atop New Haven's Temple Street Garage to a crazy, early-morning crowd estimated at 20,000, just prior to the implosion of the New Haven Coliseum, the city's hockey arena. On Jan. 21, 2006, The Cobalt Rhythm Kings opened for the great Johnny Winter at Toad's Place, Connecticut's premier music club. On July 20, 2002, The Kings opened for blues great Etta James, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas and the Fairfield Four in front of thousands of people at the first New Haven Blues & Roots Festival on the New Haven Green.
Other stops along the way have included many of Connecticut's better blues and music clubs, from cafe nine in New Haven to Black Eyed Sally's and the Arch Street Tavern in Hartford. Besides Etta, Johnny Winter and Son Seals, they have opened for, backed or appeared with the likes of Phil Guy, Bob Margolin, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Debbie Davies, Mark Naftalin of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Roomful of Blues, Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, Michael Hill's Blues Mob, John Hammond Jr. and Ron Levy & His Wild Kingdom.
The Cobalt Rhythm Kings' Cobalt Records CD, "HOT . . . Like Red Pepper," contains nine songs -- four originals -- that range from up tempo, danceable jump blues to gritty, grinding Chicago blues and the flat-out boogie of "King of the Boogie," an original tune in memory of the late John Lee Hooker. The CD also includes "Tougher Than That," a powerful tribute to the found American spirit written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and two other original songs: the bouncing, Chicago-style "Cross-Eyeded Mama" and the steamy, atmospheric "Louisiana Bayou."
In addition to the band's originals, the Cobalts are committed to resurrecting some of the great blues and swing numbers of the past and making sure that the people who brought them to the world get proper credit -- while at the same time doing them fresh rather than treating them as relics. Never heard of Buddy Johnson's "A Pretty Girl, a Cadillac and Some Money," Rudy Greene's "Juicy Fruit" or Albina Jones' "What's the Matter With You?" Get ready to boogie!
The Cobalt Rhythm Kings are eligible for the New England Foundation of the Arts' "New England States Touring," or "NEST," matching funds. To book The Cobalt Rhythm Kings, e-mail bookings@cobaltrhythmkings.com or call us at (203) 415-1670 !
Band Members
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