{{Short description|American musician}} {{use mdy dates|date=February 2024}} {{use American English|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox musical artist | image = Lafayette Leake.jpg | caption = Leake in 1978 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|6|1|mf=y}} | birth_place = Winona, Mississippi, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1990|8|14|1919|6|1}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | occupation = Musician | instruments = {{hlist|Piano|organ|vocals}} | genre = {{hlist|Chicago blues|rock and roll}} | years_active = 1950s–1988 | past_member_of = Chicago Blues All-Stars }}
'''Lafayette Leake''' (June 1, 1919 – August 14, 1990) was an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, vocalist and composer who played for Chess Records as a session musician, and as a member of the Big Three Trio, during the formative years of Chicago blues. He played piano on many of Chuck Berry's recordings.
==Biography== Leake was born in Winona, Mississippi, in 1919.<ref name="Eagle">{{cite journal | last = Eagle | first = Bob | year = 2004 | title = Directory of African-Appalachian Musicians | journal = Black Music Research Journal | volume = 24 | issue = 1 | pages = 7–71 | doi = 10.2307/4145499 | jstor = 4145499 }}</ref> Information about his early years is sparse,<ref name="allaboutjazz">{{cite web | title = Lafayette Leake | work = All About Jazz | url = https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/lafayette-leake | access-date = 2008-05-27 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604213621/http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8641 | archive-date = 2011-06-04 }}</ref> but in the early 1950s he joined the Big Three Trio (replacing Leonard Caston) and began his association with Chess Records,<ref name="Raessler">{{cite book | last = Raessler | first = Daniel M. | year = 2006 | chapter = Leake, Lafayette | editor = Komara, Edward M. | title = Encyclopedia of the Blues | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 0-415-92699-8 | pages = 558 }}</ref> where he worked closely with bassist, producer, and songwriter Willie Dixon.
Leake played piano on ''One Dozen Berrys'', Chuck Berry's second album, released in 1958 by Chess. He was then on ''Berry Is on Top;'' Leake (not Berry's longtime bandmate Johnnie Johnson) played the prominent piano on the classic original rendition of "Johnny B. Goode", as well as "Rock and Roll Music".<ref name="Kitts">{{cite book | last = Kitts | first = Jeff |author2=Tolinski, Brad | year = 2002 | title = Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time | publisher = Hal Leonard | isbn = 0-634-04619-5 | pages = 133}}</ref> Leake played on numerous other Chess sessions from the 1950s through the 1970s, backing many Chess musicians, including Sonny Boy Williamson,<ref name="Herzhaft232">{{cite book | last = Herzhaft | first = Gérard | author2 = Debord, Brigitte | author3 = Harris, Paul | author4 = Jerry, Haussler | author5 = Mikofsky, Anton J. | year = 1997 | chapter = Sonny Boy Williamson | title = Encyclopedia of the Blues | publisher = University of Arkansas Press | isbn = 1-55728-452-0 | page = [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbl00herz/page/232 232] | chapter-url-access = registration | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbl00herz/page/232 }}</ref> Otis Rush, Junior Wells, and Little Walter.<ref name="Raessler" /> Leake gave Chicago blues musician Harmonica Hinds his first harmonica lesson on the street in Toronto, Ontario.<ref name="BG Hinds">{{cite web|url=http://bg.buddyguy.com/harmonica-hinds/|title=Harmonica Hinds|author=Mark Augustine|date=April 25, 2013|website=|publisher=Buddy Guy's Legends (Checkerboard Productions)|access-date=October 26, 2013|archive-date=May 12, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512231510/http://bg.buddyguy.com/harmonica-hinds/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
During the 1960s, Willie Dixon formed the Chicago Blues All-Stars, with Leake as resident pianist. Leake toured and recorded with this group until the mid-1970s.<ref name="Raessler" /> After that he did little recording or touring, although he appeared with Berry at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1986,<ref name="McLeese">{{cite news | last = McLeese | first = Don | date = June 6, 1986 | title = Chicago Blues Festival: Opening Tonight in Grant Park | work = Chicago Sun-Times }}</ref> and recorded "Hidden Charms" with Dixon in 1988.<ref name="Hoekstra">{{cite news | last = Hoekstra | first = Dave | date = September 30, 1990 | title = Dixon feels the loss of 'third hand' | work = Chicago Sun-Times }}</ref>
Besides being a respected performer, Leake was a composer.<ref name="Raessler" /> He recorded a number of his own songs as a member of various ensembles, and others have been covered by notable musicians. Fleetwood Mac, for example, recorded his song "Love That Woman" on their album ''The Original Fleetwood Mac''. Leake's song "Wrinkles", performed by the Big Three Trio, was featured on the soundtrack of David Lynch's 1990 film, ''Wild at Heart''. Blues band Slo Leak was named after one of Leake's instrumental pieces.<ref name="Feller">{{cite news | last = Feller | first = Leslie | date = June 15, 1997 | title = In Westport, a Rebirth of the Blues | work = The New York Times | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E5DD1F3CF936A25755C0A961958260 | access-date = 2008-05-28 }}</ref>
Leake fell into a diabetic coma in his home in Chicago, where he remained undiscovered for several days, dying in hospital on August 14, 1990.<ref name="Raessler" /> In 2015 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Lafayette Leake at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Headstones Placed|url=https://killerblues.net/headstones/|access-date=2025-11-23|website=Killerblues.net|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Major recordings== *''Might is Right!'' (1960) Yambo/Weis *''Feel So Blue'' (1978) Black & Blue (France), reissued as ''Easy Blues'' (2002) '''With Chuck Berry''' *''One Dozen Berrys'' (Chess, 1958) *''Berry Is on Top'' (Chess, 1959) '''With Bo Diddley''' *''Hey! Good Lookin''' (Checker, 1965) '''With John Lee Hooker''' *''The Real Folk Blues'' (Chess, 1966) *''More Real Folk Blues: The Missing Album'' (Chess, 1966 [1991]) '''With Howlin' Wolf''' *''The Real Folk Blues'' (Chess, 1956-64 [1965]) '''With Magic Sam''' *''Black Magic'' (Delmark, 1968) *''The Magic Sam Legacy'' (Delmark, 1968 [1989]) '''With Sonny Boy Williamson''' *''The Real Folk Blues'' (Chess, 1947-64 [1966])
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/lafayette-leake Lafayette Leake at All About Jazz.com] * [http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/artist/Lafayette%20Leake/a/Lafayette%20Leake.htm Lafayette Leake discography at CD Universe] * [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p97208/biography|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leake, Lafayette}} Category:1919 births Category:1990 deaths Category:People from Winona, Mississippi Category:American blues singers Category:Boogie-woogie pianists Category:Chicago blues musicians Category:American blues pianists Category:Singers from Mississippi Category:Deaths from diabetes in the United States Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American pianists Category:Black & Blue Records artists Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi Category:20th-century American male pianists Category:Burials at Lincoln Cemetery (Cook County)