Jazz musician, LV performer Leslie dies

Tuesday, July 1, 2003 | 9:06 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

William "Bill" C. Leslie, a jazz musician who toured the world with the Louis Jordan Band, including a series of 1950s performances at Las Vegas Strip resort showrooms, died Saturday of a heart attack in Sellersville, Pa. He was 78.

A saxophonist, Leslie started several bands in the 1940s, but he is perhaps best remembered as a member of Jordan's band, which also performed in New York, Chicago and Europe.

Jordan's band for two decades played the Riviera, old Sands and old Thunderbird hotels in Las Vegas and also was a regular act in Lake Tahoe and Reno resorts.

"He was quite an innovator on the saxophone," said Don Wilson, who played in the Bill Leslie Organ Trio in the 1960s.

"He wasn't as well-known as (trumpet player) Clifford Brown, but Bill's voice was very articulate. He played everything from bebop to straight-ahead music with a lot of harmony."

Leslie learned to play the saxophone at age 12. Following World War II, where he served stateside in the Army, Leslie attended the Landis School of Music in West Philadelphia on the GI Bill.

As a professional saxophonist, he recorded several albums, including "Diggin' the Chicks."

Leslie was born and raised in Media, Pa., and graduated from Media High School in 1941. He was an electrician's apprentice at the Philadelphia Naval Yard before enlisting in the Army in 1943.

In the 1950s Leslie joined the Louis Jordan Band.

In the 1970s Leslie gave up touring and worked primarily as an electrical contractor. He continued to play the saxophone and was an active force in integrating the American Federation of Musicians Local 77.

In the early 1980s Leslie became the first president of the Philadelphia Clef Club, an organization he founded. From 1984 until his death, Leslie was a music minister at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Sellersville.

Leslie is survived by his wife of 41 years Thelma Buksa Leslie; three daughters, Vernell Marshall, Madlyn Jackson and Erica Celenza; three sons, Clifford, W. Leslie, Adrian Leslie, and Jason Leslie; a sister; a brother; four grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

The family says donations can be made in Leslie's memory to the Dizzy Gillespie Fund, in care of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 350 Englewood St. Englewood, N.J. 07631.