I Wonder About Cecil Gant

Recently checking, I discovered that neither Cecil Gant nor his recording of "I Wonder," a monster selling recording are in the Blues Hall of Fame. This says more about the folks that have been making the selections and their failure to fully appreciate the music's history in making their decisions. "I Wonder" was a major recording and a hit. It helped pave the way for the independent labels that pioneered in issuing post-war blues, country and other forms of music. It was such a smash that it has has been recorded by numerous artists including Louis Armstrong, Roosevelt Sykes, Esther Phillips, Aretha Franklin and even Tony Bennett with K.D. Lang.

Gant, called the GI Sing-sation, had a very productive recording career until his early passing in his thirties in 1951. He recorded enough 78s to fill seven public domain CD reissues (Over 160 sides I believe). He was an outstanding blues singer, often witha dry wit and an exceptional pianist ranging from wry cocktail blues liike Charles Brown and Ivory Joe Hunter to a superb boogie-woogie player who also included some early blues rock and roll. I have included in this blog post several songs to give an idea of his range.

Here is "Nashville Jumps," a rocking performance.

Here is another song that has been done by a number of other blues folks including B.B. King, "I'm a Good Man, I'm a Poor Man."

Here on "New Cecil Boogie," he shows what a fine boogie woogie player he was.

Here we slow the pace down for "Blues in L.A."

Here is a song associated with Nat King Cole (and Sun Ra) that received Gant's wry, ebullient approach, "Hit That Jive Jack."

"Rock Little Baby" anticipates rock and roll.

There is plenty more on youtube of his music for you to check out. His recording career may have been brief in its time-frame (less than a decade), but he was prolific as well as being consistently terrific. He deserves recognition today, not simply as a pioneer, but one of the all-time greats.