Biography

Jesse Lége is one of the most admired Cajun accordionists and vocalists from Southwest Louisiana. Beginning with Cajun accordion at age 16, Jesse has been playing traditional Cajun music for over 35 years with a variety of bands in various Louisiana dancehalls. He has garnered numerous Cajun French Music Association awards, known as the "Cajun Grammys": Traditional Band of the Year, Accordion Player of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Band of the Year, and for "Memoires Dans Mon Coeur," Song of the Year. He has recorded three CDs with the Lake Charles Ramblers, the Southern Ramblers, and Live at the Isleton Crawdad Festival (Calif.) with master Creole fiddler Ed Poullard. In 1998 he was inducted into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame. Jesse has played many Cajun events in Louisiana and elsewhere in the U.S. and world: Festivals Acadiens, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the prestigious Chicago Folk Festival, major festivals in CA and FL, and in England and Canada.

Some reviews of Jesse Lége's music:

"Jessie sings in the traditional high pitched, emotional style reminiscent of the late Iry LeJeune and plays the accordion with equal power and conviction.."
-Arhoolie Records

"Lége's soaring voice resonates with ... piercing, yet beautiful heartache . . . [he] possesses one of the truly great voices in contemporary Cajun music. Listeners who do not experience frissons hearing him sing ...had better check their pulse."
-LSUE Office of Public Relations

"His penetrating style and emotion-laden lyrics can make veteran festival producers such as this one weep backstage."
-Barry Ancelet, MC of the Liberty Theatre shows, producer of Festivals Acadiens, and Professor of French at USL.