From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jun 1, 2002  2:04 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Lafayette Leake
 
LAFAYETTE LEAKE

Born 1 June 1920, Wynmie, Mississippi
Died 14 August 1990, Chicago, Illinois

Pianist. Lafayette Leake was a blues pianist whose prime contribution
was collaborating with Chess Records producer Willie Dixon. After moving to
Chicago, Leake first worked with Dixon in 1951, replacing Leonard Baby Doo
Caston in Dixon's group the Big Three Trio. Leake performed on many Chess
sessions during the '50s and '60s, performing on recordings by Howlin' Wolf,
Chuck Berry, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Bo Diddley, Junior Wells,
Otis Rush and also Dale Hawkins. Leake joined Dixon's Chicago Blues All
Stars, appearing on the 1969 album "I Am The Blues". He also recorded for
the labels Cobra, Ovation and Spivey. Leake died after suffering a diabetic
coma.
Among the Chuck Berry records that feature Leake are some real classics
like "Johnny B. Goode", "Sweet LIttle Sixteen" and "Rock And Roll Music".
Charlie Gillett has written about Chuck Berry : "The basis of Berry's rhythm
was an alternation of guitar chords comparable to the 'alley' piano style of
the Coasters' 'Searchin'', but the effect was complicated by frequent lead
guitar figures and by a piano that seemed to be played almost regardless of
the melody taken by the singer and the rest of the musicians. Apart from a
few vocal groups such as the Five Satins, few rock 'n' roll performers dared to
challenge the conventions of harmony in this way, and part of the immediately
recognizable sound of Berry's records was the interesting piano playing."
(The Sound Of The City, 2nd ed. 1983, p. 81.) This observation ("regardless
of the melody") is true for Lafayette Leake, much more than for Berry's
regular pianist, Johnnie Johnson.