Wade Legge Trio – February 27 1953
Leonard Feather: Wade Legge – New Face – New Sounds Liner Notes – BLP 5031 1953
THE launching of a new career in the jazz world is fraught with problems. More often than not a young, unknown artist can make no name for himself until he has been featured on records. But just as often, he cannot persuade anyone to feature him on records until he has made a name for himself. This circle has not succeeded in enclosing the talents of Wade Legge, one of the youngest and keenest of musical minds on the new jazz scene.
Legge has inherited the noble mantle of pianist with King Dizzy. In this role he follows in a distinguished line of succession, for the Gillespie orchestras, during the late 1940s and early '50s, spawned such talents as those of Al Haig, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, Milt Jackson and John Lewis. Thus the occupancy of the piano chair in the Gillespie group implicitly augurs big things for this talented teenager. More than a hint of the future can be found in these, his first solo recordings.
Wade Legge was born Feb. 4, 1934 in Huntington, W. Va. "My parents are both pianists," he states. "and I have always lived in a musical environment." His family moved to Buffalo in 1935, and it was there that he was raised and made his professional debut.
Wade says he has been practicing the piano "for practically as many years as I am old," taking his first formal lesson at the age of seven. For a while he became negligent with his scales and arpeggios, and upon entering high school embarked on other projects, with an eye to a career in advertising art. At fifteen, however, he decided to stay with music after all, and by the time he graduated from high school he was a member of the Musicians' Union and had started working around Buffalo with local combos.
One Sunday afternoon in 1952 Milt Jackson, then playing piano and vibraphone with Gillespie, came to a jam session, saw and heard Wade Legge, and was conquered. That night he took him to meet Dizzy.
"Diz needed a bass player right away and a piano player in two weeks," recalls Wade. "Fortunately I played bass well enough to fill in on the fiddle. until Milt left. I left Buffalo with Dizzy the next afternoon."
Since that day, in September 1952. Wade has traveled extensively both throughout the United States and in continental Europe with Gillespie. His talent and personal charm have made friends and admirers for him everywhere.
His favorite musical personalities, he says, are Bud Powell, Erroll Garner, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Dizzy; but he likes all kinds of music from blues to classics to Dixieland, and declares he likes to mix them all up in his music.
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| Photo by Herman Leonard |
A word should be added in approbation of the sterling support offered Wade by bassist Lou Hackney and drummer Al Jones, both fellow-members of the Gillespie combo. Their performances in both sectional roles and solo spots on Perdido is especially noteworthy.
"I am less than half the way," declared this youthful discovery recently, "and I only hope my talent survives my ambitions." With his combination of ability and humility, he has a good chance of retaining both.
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| January 1955 Blue Note New Releases |
Down Beat 9 February 1955 Volume 22 Issue 3
Another in Blue Note’s commendatory New Faces-New Sounds series. This one though could have waited a couple of years. Legge, who'll be 20 this Feb. 4, has been Dizzy or pianist since September, 1952. He shows here and in brief appearances on the new Pete Brown Bethlehem LP that he has a degree of potential, but certainly nothing that indicates his talent is yet able to cope with an LP of his own.
Legge has yet to evolve a uniquely imaginative style of his own. His most promising bent is toward the lyrical, but he will have to conquer a tendency toward the stolid in conception and he will have to develop an ability to invent and sustain longer lines. Contrast this LP with Randy Weston’s recent debut on Riverside or Jutta Hipp’s new set with Blue Note. The latter two were ready for full exposure; Legge by contrast would have been wiser to wait.
His background here is provided by bassist Lou Hackney and drummer Al Jones, also regulars with Dizzy. I’ve never been especially impressed by their work in person, and, despite Leonard Feather’s use of the word “sterling” to describe their endeavors here, they seem no better than averagely competent. (Blue Note LP 5031)
Session Information
Wade Legge, piano; Lou Hackney, bass; Al Jones, drums.
Paris, France, February 27, 1953
Perdido, BLP 5031
Dream A Little Dream On Me, BLP 5031
Wade Leg's Blues, BLP 5031
A Swedish Folksongs, BLP 5031
Dance Of The Infidels, BLP 5031
Aren't Glad You're You, BLP 5031
These Foolish Things, BLP 5031
Leased from the Vogue label. Previously released as Vogue LD 133
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