Edward Gates White (August 4, 1918 – December 27, 1992), sometimes credited as Ed Gates or The Great Gates, was an American rhythm and blues singer, pianist and bandleader who recorded in the 1940s and 1950s.
Although some sources claim he was born in Philadelphia, researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc give his birthplace as Alabama. His family moved to California in 1922 and he studied music in school but hadn’t thought of becoming a professional musician until he was working in dry cleaning and was heard singing by his co-workers who encouraged him to give it a shot. He then impressed the owner of a night club when he sang at a talent show held there and the club owner offered him a steady job as a performer, which he turned down, still not convinced he could make it. When the bandleader offered to work with him to polish his performing skills he relented and was soon earning a living singing under the name The Great Gates (Gates being his middle name).
He established himself as a bandleader. With various bands, credited as the Hollywood All Stars or the Wampus Cats, he recorded sporadically for several labels between the mid-1940s and late 1950s. He also had a radio show on NBC in the mid-1940s, when he was known as "The Man in the Moon", which gave him another nickname which he’d continued to use thereafter as strictly a club performer.
His biggest success as a recording artist came in 1949, when "Late After Hours" on the Selective label, credited to "The Great Gates", reached number 6 on the R&B chart. Though its success was especially noteworthy considering Gates’ own inexperience, as well as that of the teenaged band behind him (including future notable Marvin Phillips on sax), not to mention the inexperience of the company which issued it, he never was able to build off that early shot at fame.
In the years to come he bounced from one label to another, releasing records under his full given name as well as his performing moniker, always able to keep his career afloat yet never becoming a star as it briefly appeared he might be able to do when starting out. In 1952, he recorded in Chicago with bandleader Red Saunders, and later recorded in Los Angeles on the Aladdin, 4 Star and Specialty labels. By the late 1950’s he’d opened a nightclub and having difficulty with finding and keeping a pianist to anchor the proceedings he learned the instrument himself and would go on to record as an organist in 1962 with a few singles released on the Robins Nest label, entitled The Man On The Moon Ed Gates On Organ.
Gates was still active locally around Los Angeles until the mid-1980’s and died December 27, 1992 in Culver City, California, at the age of 74. Gates was typical of the many West Coast-based artists who recorded consistently throughout most of the 50s, without ever really getting the recognition his superb records should have earned him.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Spontaneous Lunacy)
