WESLEY WILSON

                                WESLEY WILSON mantuvo durante su trayectoria artística diferentes nombres , uno de ellos KID WILSON , contrajo matrimonio con la cantante COOT GRANT., ambos dejaron grabados diferentes discos.Destacamos la capacidad para componer de WESLEY, que vió como los mejores artistas ( Louis Armstrong , Louis Jordan entre otros ) de la época grababan sus temas., una muestra la podéis oir al final ; BILLIE HOLIDAY , canta Gimme a Pigfood and a bottel of beer, añadimos la lista de canciones compuestas por Wilson y los distintos artistas que las interpretaron.


               

Coot Grant was the main stage name of Leola B. Pettigrew, a classic blues singer and guitarist from Alabama whose legal name became Leola Wilson following her marraige to performing partner Wesley Wilson. The pair, who ironically were born in the same year, met and began performing together in 1905 and were wed seven years later. Pettigrew was already known as Coot Grant by this time, the name representing some kind of word play on the nickname "Cutie." She had been involved in show business since she was a child, beginning as a dancer in vaudeville. Prior to the beginning of the first World War she had already toured both Europe and South Africa, sometimes appearing under the name of Patsy Hunter. Her husband, who played both piano and organ, also performed under a variety of bizarre stage names including Catjuice Charlie, in a gross-out duo with Pigmeat Pete, as well as Kid Wilson, Jenkins, Socks and Sox Wilson.

The husband and wife, billed as Grant And Wilson, Kid and Coot and Hunter And Jenkins, appeared and recorded with top jazz artists such as Fletcher Henderson, Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong. They performed in musical comedies, vaudeville, travelling shows and revues and in 1933 appeared in the film Emperor Jones with the famous singer Paul Robeson. Their songwriting was certainly as important as these performing activities. The couple published some 400 songs, most famous of which is "Gimme A Pigfoot", one of classic blues singer Bessie Smith's grandest hits.

On her own, Grant also recorded country blues including some collaborations with guitarist Blind Blake in 1926. The careers of both she and her husband began to falter in the mid '30s, with the pair returning to the studios only briefly in 1938, and again a decade later when Mezzrow hired them to perform and write material for his new King Jazz label. Grant kept performing following her husband's retirement in 1948, but eventually dropped so far out of sight that to date no details have been discovered about her death.

Coot Grant and Kid Wilson - Scoop It (1926)

             

Wesley Wilson (October 1, 1893 – October 10, 1958) was an American blues and jazz singer and songwriter. His own stage craft, plus the double act with his wife and musical partner, Coot Grant, was popular with African American audiences in the 1910s, 1920s and early 1930s.

His stage names included Kid Wilson, Jenkins, Socks, and either Sox Wilson or Socks Wilson. His musical excursions included participation in the oddly named duo of Pigmeat Pete and Catjuice Charlie Wilson recorded songs such as "Blue Monday on Sugar Hill" and "Rasslin' Till The Wagon Comes".

He was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Wilson played both piano and organ, whilst Coot Grant strummed guitar as well as sing and dance.

The duo's billing also varied between Grant and Wilson, Kid and Coot, and Hunter and Jenkins, as they went on to appear and later record with Fletcher Henderson, Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong. Their variety was such that they performed separately and together in vaudeville, musical comedies, revues and traveling shows. This ability to adapt also saw them appear in the 1933 film, The Emperor Jones, alongside Paul Robeson.

In addition to this, the twosome wrote in excess of 400 songs over their working lifetime. That list included "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)" (1933) and "Take Me for a Buggy Ride", which were both made famous by Bessie Smith's recording of the songs, plus "Find Me at the Greasy Spoon (If You Miss Me Here)" (1925) and "Prince of Wails" for Fletcher Henderson. Their own renditions included the diverse, "Come on Coot, Do That Thing" (1925), "Dem Socks Dat My Pappy Wore," and "Throat Cutting Blues" (although the latter remains unreleased)."

Although Grant and Wilson's act, once seen as a serious rival to Butterbeans and Susie began to lose favor with the public by the middle of the 1930s, they recorded further songs in 1938Their only child, Bobby Wilson, was born in 1941.By 1946, and after Mezz Mezzrow had founded his King Jazz record label, he engaged them as songwriters. In that year, the association led to their final recording session backed by a quintet incorporating Bechet and Mezzrow.

Wilson retired in ill health shortly thereafter but Grant continued performing into the 1950s.

In January 1953, one commentator noted that the couple had moved from New York to Los Angeles, but were in considerable financial hardship.

Wilson died from a stroke, aged 65, in October 1958 in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.

In 1998, his entire recorded work, both with and without Grant, was made available in three chronological volumes by Document Records

"Chicky-Mo, Craney-Crow" Louis Jordan

"De Laff's on You" Louis Jordan

"Do You Call That a Buddy?" Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan, Carl Weathersby, B.B. King, Dr. John

"Do Your Duty" Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Buck Clayton, Rory Block, Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women

"I'm Down in the Dumps" Bessie Smith, Jack Teagarden, Rory Block, Valerie Wellington

"Ghost of Yesterday" Billie Holiday

"Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)" Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, Count Basie, Bobby Short

"It's Full or It Ain't No Good" Louis Jordan, Billie Holiday, Rory Block, Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women

"Prince of Wails" Fletcher Henderson

"Somebody Done Hoodooed the Hoodoo Man" Louis Jordan

"Take Me for a Buggy Ride" Bessie Smith

"Toot It, Brother Armstrong" Sidney Bechet

"Uncle Joe" Sidney Bechet

             

Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)" is a song written by husband and wife team Coot Grant & Wesley Wilson in 1933 for which this song was most famously sung by Bessie Smith in the same year.

Billie's accompanied by Buck Clayton, Lester "Shad" Collins, Bobby Williams (trumpet); Henderson Chambers, George Stevenson (trombone); Pete Clark, George Dorsey (alto saxophone); Budd Johnson, Freddie Williams (tenor saxophone); Dave McRae (baritone saxophone); Horace Henderson (piano); Everett Barksdale (guitar); Joe Benjamin (bass); and Wallace Bishop (drums). Recorded in New York City, September 8, 1949. (Decca Records)