Cecil Gant
Pianist Cecil Gant seemingly materialized out of the wartime mist to create one of the most enduring blues ballads of the 1940s. Gant was past age 30 when he burst onto the scene in a most unusual way -- he popped up in military uniform at a Los Angeles war-bonds rally sponsored by the Treasury Department. Private Gant proceeded to electrify the assembled multitude with his piano prowess, leading to his imminent 1944 debut on Oakland's Gilt-Edge Records: the mellow pop-slanted ballad "I Wonder," which topped the R&B charts despite a wartime shellac shortage that hit tiny independent companies like Gilt-Edge particularly hard. Its flip, the considerably more animated "Cecil's Boogie," was a hit in its own right.
Pvt. Gant shot to the upper reaches of the R&B charts for Gilt-Edge like a guided missile with his "Grass Is Getting Greener Every Day" and "I'm Tired" in 1945, recording prolifically for the imprint before switching over to the Bullet label for the 1948 smash "Another Day -- Another Dollar" and 1949's "I'm a Good Man but a Poor Man" (in between those two, Gant also hit with "Special Delivery" for Four Star). Urbane after-hours blues, refined ballads, torrid boogies -- Gant ran the gamut during a tumultuous few years in the record business (he also turned up on King, Imperial, Dot, and Swing Time/Down Beat), but it didn't last. His "We're Gonna Rock" for Decca in 1950 (as Gunter Lee Carr) presaged the rise of rock & roll later in the decade, but Gant wouldn't be around to view its ascendancy; the one-time "G.I. Sing-Sation" died in 1952 at the premature age of 38.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
Discography
19 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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The Complete Recordings, Vol. 7 (1950 - 1951)
Blues - Released by Blue Moon Rhythm & Blues on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Cecil Gant Collection 1944-51
Blues - Released by ACROBAT on 13 Apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 1944
Blues - Released by Blue Moon Rhythm & Blues on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Greatest Piano Blues Boogie
Blues - Released by Master Classics Records on 4 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 (1945)
Blues - Released by Blue Moon Rhythm & Blues on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sing it Satchmo - Original 1945-1955 Recordings (Volume 8)
Classical - Released by Naxos on 29 May 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hit That Jive Jack
Blues - Released by 1201 MUSIC on 28 Feb 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cecil Gant, 1944 - 1945
Blues - Released by Interstate Records on 15 Sep 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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I Wonder - Blues, Ballads & Boogies
Blues - Released by Jasmine Records on 7 Jul 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Recordings, Vol. 6 (1948 - 1950)
Blues - Released by Blue Moon Rhythm & Blues on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Recordings Volume 4 (1946-1949)
Blues - Released by Blue Moon Rhythm & Blues on 1 Jan 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Numero Uno Blues
Blues - Released by Excess Music on 29 Apr 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Complete Recordings, Vol. 3 1945-1946
Blues - Released by Blue Moon Rhythm & Blues on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It's Christmas Time Once Again
Blues - Released by Tuff City Records on 1 Jan 1950
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
We're Running Wild
Blues - Released by Reminisce Music on 17 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues in La (Hq Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Vintage Recordings on 1 Aug 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo