BLP 5031

Wade Legge - New Faces - New Sounds

Released - 1953

Recording and Session Information

Paris, France, February 27, 1953
Wade Legge, piano; Lou Hackney, bass; Al Jones, drums.

Perdido
Dream A Little Dream On Me
Wade Leg's Blues
A Swedish Folksongs
Dance Of The Infidels
Aren't Glad You're You
These Foolish Things
Why Don't You Believe Me

Session Photos

Photo by HERMAN LEONARD

Credits

Cover Photo:	HERMAN LEONARD
Cover Design:	JOHN HERMANSADER
Engineer:
Producer:	ALFRED LION
Liner Notes:	LEONARD FEATHER

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Perdido	Tizol	February 27 1953
Dream A Little Of Me	Schwandt	February 27 1953
Wade Leg's Blues	Wade Legge	February 27 1953
A Swedish Folksong	Traditional	February 27 1953
Side Two
Dance Of The Infidels	Bud Powell	February 27 1953
Ain't You Glad You're You	Simons	February 27 1953
These Foolish Things	Marvell-Strachey-Link	February 27 1953
Why Don't You Believe Me	Douglas-Laney	February 27 1953

Liner Notes

By LEONARD FEATHER

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.

How successfully he carries out this precept is amply demonstrated in these sides. On most of the numbers Wade plays in a modern groove, reflecting the above-noted influences; but on the blues, for instance, he incorporates the style and feeling of older jazz forms with equal authority. Wade's choice of material betokens an interesting catholicity of taste: Bud Powell's Dance of the Infidels, one blues, one jazz standard, one traditional Swedish air popularized by Stan Getz, and four standard pop tunes, make up the set.

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.

Cover Design by JOHN HERMANSADER
Photo by HERMAN LEONARD

Session Information: Link