Jesse Wade and Spencer Cottman
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Some musicians are meant to play together. The case of Jesse Wade and Spencer Cottman proves that point. Their individual skills made them iconic over the course of decades, but their work in tandem revealed their musical bond. Their partnership brought more than a tinge of spirituality to secular music. Likewise, their broad musical tastes elevated the gospel genre in Luzerne County to a higher level of artistry.
Jesse Wade Jr. was born in Wilkes-Barre in 1932. At the age of nine, he began taking lessons on the piano, which happened to be his mother’s instrument of choice. One of Wade’s greatest attributes was his work ethic, which became essential following his parents’ deaths. He worked to support his siblings through his music, playing local nightclubs before he had even reached the legal drinking age.
Family was a critical theme in Wade’s story, and it had a tendency to reveal his aforementioned work ethic. His grueling routine of working a full-time job, briefly stopping at home, and then heading out to play his music into the next morning, spoke to Wade’s desire to continue supporting his family. By this point, Wade was becoming well-known on the local music circuit as an elite keyboardist, though many of the establishments he frequented were literally or figuratively washed away by Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
No crowd was more familiar with Jesse Wade’s talents than the parishioners of Mount Zion Baptist Church, where he served as the organist and minister of music. In line with his giving nature, Wade notably volunteered to play at State Correctional Institution – Retreat in Newport Twp. As it turned out, Wade’s career ran parallel to another local musician who had a similarly charitable spirit.
Spencer Cottman was an excellent entertainer, using his saxophone as an expressive tool for intense musical messages. Beyond that, however, he was one of Luzerne County’s greatest community organizers. In many cases, these talents would collide. Take, for example, his organizing of the Gospel Music Extravaganza fundraiser for the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre. It takes substantial community support to get so much talent into one room. Cottman had the ability to bring that talent together by sharing his own.
Throughout his life, Cottman was a traveling musician who shared stages with a host of talented collaborators, primarily in the jazz and gospel worlds. Among his most frequent and long standing collaborators was his wife, Barbara. Together, the Cottmans pumped new life into the Bethel A.M.E. Church, where Spencer served as the president of the board of trustees and as the choir director.
Aside from his contributions to the local music scene, Spencer Cottman was involved with and worked for numerous local organizations based around service and diversity. To name a few of his many community appearances, Cottman performed for children at the McGlynn Center, was a board member of the local NAACP chapter, and worked for the Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority and Luzerne County Head Start.
Jesse Wade and Spencer Cottman certainly crossed paths through their mutual interest in community service, but their combined musical talents were truly something to behold. They performed across Pennsylvania as the “Just the Two of Us” duet, bringing their artistry to broader audiences. Wade and Cottman, through the formal musical partnership they developed later in their lives, ensured that their creativity would forever be intertwined.
Cottman and Wade continued performing until their deaths in 2003 and 2016, respectively. Their contributions, especially to the local Black community, were immense. They both were fantastic ambassadors for the music they enjoyed, bringing it to their friends and neighbors through public and private performances. In doing so, they exuded the spirituality of gospel and the virtuosity of jazz. The Wyoming Valley has not seen a more hallowed musical duo than Jesse Wade and Spencer Cottman.