I can't be crtain when I first heard him perform on sax. Was it with Andy Koch's Rubber Band or at a local open mike? I do remember being surprised because I had always thought of him solely as a sound technition.
Jade began playing saxophone in the fourth grade and continued doing so throughout his school years. He has occaisonally put his own performing on the back burner to pursue other artistic projects, but has still amassed an extensive resume and added a lot of instruments to his bag of tricks along the way. These days he performs most frequently on alto sax, but he also has tenor sax, flute, midi wwd controller, keyboards and percussion under his belt. Jade is a regular supporter and participant in various northwest blues open mikes and jams. When he's out gigging, it's usually with Sideshow Bob (formerly Helix) or Marvin J. and the All Stars.
Jade Wailer is also a songwriter. His Funky Business CD has sold all over the west coast and received critical acclaim from Seattle's Rocket Magazine. He is currently recording a new original CD. You can hear his jazz, rock, funk and Louisiana blues influences both in his original music and his lead playing.
As a former Board Member of Allied Arts of Whatcom County, Jade has helped both promote and produce some of the larger Whatcom festivals and worked organizing several jazz festivals.
But hey, what you really want to know is who he has been playing with all these years. Here is some of the list: Smackley's Backroom Band, Helix, Steam Heat, David Weiss, the late Al Failing, Porpoise (a cool swing jazz vocalist and guitarist in his own right) Andy Koch, The Hans Brehmer trio, Marcia Guderian's Amethest, Laurette Langille & The Fabulous Nitecrawlers, and let us not forget Pat McFarland, Joe Pacquin, Ed Smith, Paul White, Daddy Treetops, Richard Shuman, Eric Turner, David Chapman and Marvin Johnson.
Ask him about all the national shows he's worked on doing sound if you really want to get jealous. But from Jade's point of view, the high point of his career was playing original protest songs as the closing act of the last legendary Magic Skagit Festival.
To get information on the new Corn Maze Blues CD compilation, which Jade appears on, and some of his earlier cassett and CD releases visit Jade's web site.
(photo by Noona Walton copyright 2003, all rights reserved)
