Search - Cecil Gant :: Best of 1944-1948

Not Much Research Went Into This Japanese Import

08/13/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"You have to believe that, had this Nashville-born jump artist not died from pneumonia at age 37 in 1951, today he'd be right up there with R&B greats like Louis Jordan, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris et al. He was that good.



Often billed as The G.I. Sing-Sation, his first four hit singles [there were no LPs back then] were shown as by Pvt. Cecil Gant. First up was the double-sided hit I Wonder. Released initially on the Bronze label, it stayed at # 1 for two weeks in late 1944 on the Harlem Hit Parade [what then passed for the R&B charts], b/w the instrumental Cecil Boogie, which went to # 5 six months later in April 1945. Part way through the run the record was picked up and distributed by the marginally larger Gilt-Edge label.



Both of those are in this volume, but his next two hits for Gilt-Edge are not. The Grass Is Getting Greener topped out at # 7 in July 1945, while I'm Tired made it to # 4 in August, but yet they include the uncharted B-side to the latter, Are You Ready?



Another missing hit is Another Day, Another Time which, billed to The Cecil Gant Trio and released by Bullet, went to # 6 in October 1948, although they do include the A-side of his other 1948 hit, Special Delivery. Released by 4 Star, it peaked at # 11 that October [the flip, Jump Jack Jump, is missing].



Your guess is as good as mine as to why all these are missing from a CD labelled Best Of 1944-1948, or why they did not take that extra step and call it Best Of 1944-1949 and include his final charter, I'm A Good Man But A Poor Man [# 12 in April 1949] on the Bullet label.



Still, if you ignore the title and just consider the music offered here, this is still a fine collection of the jump tunes of a man largely forgotten by North American distributors. A shame really."