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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGANT, Cecil(b 4 April 1913, Nashville; d there 4 February 1951) Blues singer, pianist. He worked local clubs in the mid-'30s until U.S. Army service. Though his piano was blues-based, vocally he was a crooner of considerable cross-over appeal, probably influenced by smooth stylings such as that of Leroy Carr. He sang at war bond rally in L.A., recorded his own ballad 'I Wonder' late '44 for both the Bronze and the Gilt-Edge labels: the song was topical, with a great many men still fighting: 'Will you think of me every day/ Though I may be a million miles away?' He was billed as 'Pvt. Cecil Grant' and the Gilt-Edge disc made no. 1 on the Harlem Hit Parade (as the "race' chart was then called), and sold impressively nationwide, covered by Woody Herman, Louis Armstrong and others. Gant toured as 'The G.I. Sing-Sation' dressed in Army khaki, breaking attendance records at major venues, attracting both black and white audiences, but was unlucky, perhaps too early: it was left to Nat Cole and Billy Eckstine to find the lucrative 'sepia Sinatra' market. Other releases on King '47, Bullet '48-9, Downbeat/Swingtime '49, Imperial '50; he allegedly tried on incipient rock'n'roll as Gunter Lee Carr on Decca, but his moment of juke box glory was gone. He drank heavily and died of pneumonia. |