Stacey Wade

Stacey Wade was raised by his grandfather and grew up in the church. He trained classically in voice and piano — voice first — and was working professionally by sixteen.

At nineteen he joined Al Green’s band. He is still in it, one of its longest-tenured members, and has been since before he finished school. At twenty-four he received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, going back between tours and contracts until he finished the degree in 2024.

In between, he has recorded and performed with Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Ziggy Marley, Billy Preston and Michael McDonald. He served as musical director for Sweet Honey in the Rock for two years, including a jazz trio project recorded in New York, and as musical director of the Holland America house band, based out of Civitavecchia, Italy, across four tours of duty in the Mediterranean.

He writes, sings, plays and produces. He plays church every Sunday. He teaches. And he leads SWADE TRIO out of Portland, where the trio plays the city’s rooms three and four nights a month.

The sound is his own: a jazz pianist’s hands, a church singer’s voice, and a producer’s ear for a groove. He describes it as a sophisticated mashup of jazz, hip-hop and soul — or, more plainly, somewhere between Herbie Hancock and D’Angelo.