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The Air Condo Biography Page
Links will take you to the web sites of the bands the former members of Air Condo are playing with today.

 

Bugs Beddow - on the Detroit scene, no one has made a bigger name for himself than Bugs. He's fronted his own band for virtually every year since Air Condo's demise, first with a fusion group and then in the 90s with a rhythm and blues party music band that has a rep as one of the Motor City's very finest. It's silly to even attempt to cover the topic of Bugs here when a veritable info overload is a mere click away. You won't find a more comprehensive band web site anywhere so if you wish to learn about all things Beddow just move your mouse back to the link and enjoy the trip. Just don't forget to come back.

Jeff Cowden - the prognosis is good for lovers of excellent keyboard playing in the Melbourne, Florida area. After over a decade where Jeff had completely stopped performing in public, he finally caught the bug again in the last couple of years and of late has been playing in a blues band on weekends, a stones throw away from the Atlantic Ocean. Jeff, like Kevin and Paul L., is an Azrael alum. He paid some serious road dues in that group and then joined Air Condo in January of '77. He stayed with the group until it's May '80 demise and played for a while longer in the Detroit area in a band called Crossover before moving to Florida. There he played briefly with a group called Bad Sneakers before putting his toys away for far too many years. With any luck, the future holds a glorious return to the Detroit area in store. There're some folks up here in the Motor City who would very much like to acquire the services of one Mr. Cowden and they won't stop annoying him until it happens!

Paul Kingery - the only performing member of Air Condo who was in the band from day one 'til day last was Paul. He had done the bar and local concert scene in Detroit for many years and just prior to AC, he was in a band called Nature with Wayne Wayne and Glenn Preston. The three of them left that group and scrounged up 3 other dudes - Paul Laginess, Max Kolomitz and original keyboardist, Scott Carlson, to form the first version of Air Condo and the rest...well, you know. If there's an ex-Condoid who managed to garner some musical recognition at the national level after AC, it would have to be Paul. In the early eighties, he moved to California and played with Rick Springfield, Tiffany and Tim Bogert, ex of Vanilla Fudge. Today he sings and plays bass with Three Dog Night. Not bad, eh?

Max Kolomitz - growing up in Oak Park, Michigan, Max knew many musicians who later tasted fame to one degree or another. The Knack, the Romantics and Was Not Was all had members that hailed from his 'hood. Max' moment in the spotlight came in the last 4 months of '99 as a song he wrote 22 years ago - What It Is - made mincemeat of everything in it's path on MP3.com's R&B chart. Another of Air Condo's original members, Max' stay in the band extended up to New Years Eve 1979. On that fateful night three of the band's charter members - Wayne, Max and Paul L. - flew the coop. Since that time, Max has pretty much been a hired gun playing any wedding or bar gig that happened to present itself for pretty much the entire 20+ years from January '80 to today.

Paul Laginess - my storied musical career was somewhat less than noteworthy prior to Air Condo. There was a stint with a band called Deluxe in '74 that featured four horns (my first time playing with brass) and two fine guitarists, Dallas Hodge and Mike Ferencz. Mike and I played together in 3 (or was it 4) other bands in subsequent years. After Deluxe I was the token white boy in a couple funk groups, Guerilla Warfare and the Gaslight. The former featured future Condoid, "Poncho" Turner, on vocals and keys. Just before Air Condo, I worked with Azrael. This was significant in that Jeff Cowden and Kevin Wetzel were also in the band, both of whom joined Air Condo later on. AAC (after Air Condo) came work with a couple OK bar bands - Strider and the Edge - followed by years of wedding jobs in various groups worth mentioning only because one of those bands had a young guitarist whom I've worked with for 13 years now named Waldon Reed, Jr. Aside from the crappy wedding gigs, we've done club work playing jazz fusion and originals with first Station Break and then the Shapes. We have two CDs, Resonance Reconnaissance and From Today Until Dark, two fine examples of ripping guitar-oriented fusion jazz rock.

Glenn Preston - talk about a guy who went on to bigger and better things, Glenn, like Paul K. had the good fortune to work with some very high profile acts in the post-AC years. One of the first things Glenn did in the early 80s though was build himself a PA system. In point of fact, he's never stopped tweaking, upgrading and augmenting it (or them) since. So, for years he busied himself developing a reputation as the ultimate one stop shop for local bands looking for the total sound reinforcement package. Detroit is the home of dozens of groups, past and present, who have received the full Glenn Preston sound treatment. But that's not the half. Glenn spent two extended stints in the Bob Seger organization, first as a stage hand and later in a management capacity best described as sort of the ultimate right hand man. Between and after Seger, right up until just over a year ago, Glenn toured extensively with Cheap Trick running sound and managing most aspects of the business of moving a huge show from one city to the next.

Wayne W. Wayne - shortly after high school Wayne quickly made a name for himself as first chair saxophonist in the youth orchestra at the Interlochen summer arts camp in northern Michigan. But although raised on the classics and jazz, Wayne was ready for some serious R&B, funk and even rock in the 70s. He worked with 2 bands in the early part of the decade - Virgin Dawn and TRH - and then joined Nature with Paul K. and Glenn before forming (and naming) Air Condo. Shortly after AC, Wayne moved to sunny California and pretty much never looked back. Thankfully, he does come back though once a year for some serious quality hang time with good bud, Paul L. Tough as LA is, you can't hold a superb player down and Wayne is most definitely that. He's done a ton of session work, and played countless gigs fronting his own band. He's backed up various name acts (the Temptations, blues legend Barbara Morrison, and Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, to name a few) and currently is the featured soloist with the Chris Ho Band, a group very likely to break big with a new CD in '00.

Kevin Wetzel - in the years prior to Air Condo, Kevin's earliest work of note was as the leader of the group Azrael. This was a band of road warriors predominantly hailing from the Grand Haven area in western Michigan. Their travels took them to Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and at least 20 cities all over the state of Michigan. That life would tend to wear a body down after a while so when Paul Laginess was asked to join Air Condo after only 6 months in Azrael, off he went. Jeff Cowden, who had joined the band about a year before Paul, left for the greener pastures of Air Condo shortly after, and finally Kevin joined up about a year later just in time to partake in AC's glory years of '78-'79. He stayed until the bitter end (May '80) and then joined another rock 'n roll touring band called Foxx for 9 months followed by many years playing Detroit area watering holes as a very popular one man band. In the late 80's, he spent a few years in one of Detroit's best one-nighter groups, Vizitor, with Doug Cassens who played sax with Air Condo for the band's last 4 months. He's also been heard on local radio for many years (too many) singing a Tubby's Submarine commercial.
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