Coot Grant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coot "Cutie" Grant (* 17th June 1893 in Birmingham (Alabama) as Leola B. Pettigrew ) was an American vaudeville blues singer, guitarist and songwriter .

Live and act

Coot Grant was the stage name of the singer Leola B. Pettigrew, who was named after her marriage to Wesley "Kid" Wilson, who was also her musical partner, Leola Wilson. They met in 1905; Coot Grant had previously appeared as a dancer in vaudeville troops. In the period before the outbreak of war before 1914, she had toured Europe and South Africa; she was accompanied by her husband on the piano or the organ. They also appeared under pseudonyms like Patsy Hunter or bizarre stage names like Catjuice Charlie, Kid Wilson, Jenkins, Socks and Sox Wilson .

Grant and Wilson appeared and recorded under the names Kid and Coot and Hunter and Jenkins respectively with jazz musicians such as Fletcher Henderson , Mezz Mezzrow , Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong , and made guest appearances in musical comedies, traveling shows and revues. In 1933 she had an appearance in the film Emperor Jones on the side of the singer Paul Robeson . Between 1925 and 1938 he made a series of recordings for Paramount , Cameo and Decca , on which musicians such as Charlie Green , Charlie Dixon , Buster Bailey , Joe Smith , Blind Blake , Tiny Parham , Jimmy Blythe , Porter Grainger , Eddie Lang , Lonnie Johnson , Sam Price and Teddy Bunn performed .

Grant is also remembered for her activities as a songwriter; the couple wrote about 400 songs together, most notably "Gimme A Pigfoot," which was one of the hits of blues singer Bessie Smith . Other well-known tracks were "Dem Socks Dat My Pappy Wore" and "Throat Cutting Blues". Grant also took on some country blues tracks under his own name in 1926 in collaboration with guitarist Blind Blake .

In the mid-1930s, the couple's success waned; Recordings were made in 1938. Mezz Mezzrow then brought the two into the studio at the end of 1947 when he recorded material with them ("Breathless Blues", "Really the Blues") for his own label, King Jazz . Grant continued to perform after her husband withdrew from the music scene in 1948, but was then forgotten so that nothing is known about her whereabouts.

Discographic notes

  • Coot Grant & Kid Wilson: Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1925-1928)
  • Coot Grant and Kid Wilson Vol. 2 (1928-1931)
  • Coot Grant and Kid Wilson Vol.3 (1931-1938) (Document)
  • Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers 1924-1930 (Affinity)
  • Mezz Mezzrow 1947 (Classics) or King Jazz, Vol. 2 (GHB, 1946/47)

Web links

literature

  • Michael Taft: Talkin 'to Myself: Blues Lyrics, 1921-1942 . 2013

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Coot Grant at Discogs (English)
  2. ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed August 25, 2015)
personal data
SURNAME Grant, Coot
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grant, Cutie (nickname); Pettigrew, Leola B.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham, Alabama
DATE OF DEATH 20th century