Cecil Gant (April 4, 1913 – February 4, 1951) was an
American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, whose recordings of both ballads
and "fiery piano rockers" were successful in the mid- and late 1940s,
and influenced the early development of rock and roll. His biggest hit was the
1944 ballad, "I Wonder".
Gant was born in Columbia, Tennessee, but was raised in
Cleveland, Ohio. He returned to Nashville, Tennessee and worked there as a
musician, as well as touring with his own band, from the mid-1930s until he
joined the army during World War II. In 1944, after performing at a War Bond
rally in Los Angeles, California, he recorded his composition "I
Wonder" for the tiny black-owned Bronze record label. When it started to
become locally popular, he re-recorded it for the newly established white-owned
independent Gilt-Edge record label. His recording of "I Wonder" was
released under the name "Pvt. Cecil Gant", as were later releases on
the label.
The Gilt-Edge release of "I Wonder" sold well.
It reached number one on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade (the former name of
the R&B chart), and number 20 on the national pop chart (as synthesized by
Joel Whitburn); and its B-side, the instrumental "Cecil Boogie",
reached number 5 on the R&B chart. Gant wrote most of his own songs. Billed
as "The G.I. Sing-sation", his two follow-up records on Gilt-Edge,
"The Grass Is Getting Greener" and "I'm Tired", also made
the R&B chart. Arnold Shaw identified "I Wonder" as the song that
"ignited the postwar blues explosion", and the success of Gant's
records helped stimulate the establishment of other independent labels immediately
after the war.
He also released material through King Records (1947),
and recorded for Bullet Records in Nashville until 1949. His 1948 recording of
"Nashville Jumps" opens the 2004 compilation Night Train to
Nashville. The co-founder of Bullet, Jim Bulleit, said of Gant: He drank too
much... He would say, "I want to do a session" when he ran out of
money. We would get a bass player and a guitarist and get him a piano, and I'd
go sit in the control room, and he'd tinkle around on it, and then he'd say
"I'm ready," and tap that bottle; and if we didn't get it the first
time, we didn't get it, 'cause he couldn't remember what he did. He'd dream up
and write a song while he sat there, and he'd give me the title of it. And the
uniqueness of the thing is that all of them sold.
In 1949 he returned to Los Angeles, and recorded for the
Down Beat and Swing Time labels, before moving to New Orleans to record for
Imperial Records in 1950, but with diminishing commercial success. Many of
Gant's records had a slow ballad as the A-side but an up-tempo boogie woogie
style piano-based song or instrumental as the B-side, in many cases
foreshadowing rock and roll and influential on its practitioners. Examples
include "We're Gonna Rock" (1950) and "Rock Little Baby"
(1951). On some of his later records, Gant was credited, for unknown reasons,
as Gunter Lee Carr.
In later years Gant was married and based in Nashville.
He died there in 1951, at the age of 37, while preparing to leave for an
engagement in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Although some sources give the cause of
death as pneumonia, contemporary sources refer to a heart attack, possibly
brought on by Gant's alcoholism. He is buried in Highland Park Cemetery in
Cleveland, Ohio. (Info Wikipedia)
3 comments:
For “The Blues Collection 88 - Cecil Gant - Blues in LA” go here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2cp22v61417or5e/Cecil_Gant_-_Blues_in_LA.rar
01. Cecil Gant - Killer Diller Boogie (2:26)
02. Cecil Gant - I Wonder (2:46)
03. Cecil Gant - Cecil Boogie (2:24)
04. Cecil Gant - Blues In L.A. (3:33)
05. Cecil Gant - When I Wanted You (2:10)
06. Cecil Gant - Little Baby You\'re Running Wild (3:52)
07. Cecil Gant - Rhumba Boogie Woogie (3:06)
08. Cecil Gant - I Gotta Gal (2:53)
09. Cecil Gant - Cecil\'s Mop Mop (2:32)
10. Cecil Gant - Wake Up, Cecil, Wake Up (2:27)
11. Cecil Gant - New Cecil Boogie (2:48)
12. Cecil Gant - Soft And Mellow (3:09)
13. Cecil Gant - Hit That Jive Jack (2:58)
14. Cecil Gant - Special Delivery (3:14)
15. Cecil Gant - That\'s The Stuff You Gotta Watch (2:50)
16. Cecil Gant - I\'ll Remember You (2:44)
17. Cecil Gant - Midnight On Central Avenue (2:53)
18. Cecil Gant - Boogie Blues (2:52)
19. Cecil Gant - Jump Jack Jump (2:54)
20. Cecil Gant - It\'s All Over Darling (3:16)
21. Cecil Gant - What\'s On Your Worried Mind (2:57)
A big thank you to the schdetodounpoko.blogspot.co.uk for original link
Thanks Bob for Cecil. Great musician,bad life style.
My kingdom for a copy of Volume 4 on CD!
The Complete Recordings Volume 4 (1946-1949)
Cecil Gant
BMCD 6035
Nowhere to be found. e.g.
https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/search?submit_search=&controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=cecil+gant
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