Wade Legge

Wade Legge lived less than 30 years, his short career an impressive legacy of stimulating work and superb interaction with masters such as Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, and Charles Mingus. His name sounding like a partial description of a bathing event, Legge was a fine bassist as well as pianist. Vibraphonist Milt Jackson heard him plucking the former axe in a Buffalo club and called his friend Dizzy Gillespie, knowing the bebop trumpeter was restaffing a rhythm section. This led to a Legge up into Gillespie's combo, a good career move as this group was working steadily in the '50s. A half a month into the first tour, the story goes that Gillespie walked in on Legge playing piano and said "I'm switching you off bass." In another version, Legge got the job after showing the current pianist a hipper way to play a bridge. Legge stretched out in this group through 1954, getting his first opportunities to record as a trio leader when in France on Gillespie's dime.

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