Wendell Philips Culley (January 8, 1906 in Worcester, Massachusetts – May 8, 1983 in Los Angeles, CA) was an American jazz trumpeter and occasional multi instrumentalist.
Growing up in Worcester, Culley played regularly at the AME Zion Church, in the Commerce High School band, and occasionally with Mamie Moffitt and Her Five Jazz Hounds.
[1] He also played in Boots Ward's Nite Hawks,[1] and in working groups with his brother Ray, a drummer and singer.
His sister Agnes Cully Brown was a fashion designer for opera singer Marian Anderson.
In 1931, he moved to New York City, where he found early work playing with Horace Henderson and Cab Calloway.