Willie Kent

The preeminent Chicago blues bassist from the postwar era, Willie Kent was the city’s last surviving connect to the Mississippi Delta tradition, backing a who’s who of immortals including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Parker aswell as fronting his own long-running band, the Gents. Delivered in Inverness, MS, on Feb 24, 1936, Kent was the merchandise of the sharecropping family members, and was enlisted to choose cotton at age six. While regional musician Dewitt Munson afforded his initial contact with the blues, as a teenager he started dialing in Helena, AR’s important radio place KFFA, where in fact the Ruler Biscuit Period broadcast offered as his launch to formative affects including Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Nighthawk. By age group 11, Kent was a surreptitious fixture on the Highway 61 membership the Harlem Inn, getting works headlined by Howlin’ Wolf and Ike Turner. 2 yrs later, he still left house for Memphis, and after a short tenure at a Florida gas place, he migrated to Chicago at age 16. There Kent bought his initial electric guitar, which he loaned to musician Willie Hudson in trade for lessons. In 1959, he became a member of Hudson’s music group Ralph & the Crimson Tops being a chauffeur, sometimes appearing on-stage being a vocalist. Whenever Hudson’s bassist sibling showed up to get a gig as well drunk to execute, Kent was summoned as his substitute, eventually overtaking the position once and for all. Upon joining Small Milton’s music group in 1961, Kent’s notoriety grew, and he became a reliable existence at Kansas Town Red’s renowned “Blue Mon” celebrations. Kent was renowned as very much for his skill for his professionalism and reliability, a rare item in the blues globe, and he frequently sat along with greats spanning from Muddy Waters to Small Walter. After departing Small Milton, he tenured with Arthur Stallworth & the Chicago Playboys as the 1960s found a close, accompanied by stints to get Hip Linkchain and Jimmy Dawkins. After coming back from a Western european tour, Dawkins relinquished his headlining gig on the Western world Side blues membership Ma Bea’s Lounge to Kent, who for the very first time assembled his very own band, Sugar Keep & the Beehives, with guitarist Willie Adam Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. Ma Bea’s would serve as the environment for Kent’s debut LP, 1975’s live discharge Ghetto, and continued to be his house for over six years. In 1982, he came back to sideman responsibilities, signing up for Eddie Taylor and adding to his acclaimed 1985 swan tune Poor Boy. After Taylor passed away that Xmas, Kent recruited his guitarist Johnny B. Moore and drummer Tim Taylor to create Willie Kent & the Gents: as their fellow bluesmen followed an extremely slick sensibility motivated by industrial R&B, the Gents championed the traditional Delta 12-club tradition, emerging being a preferred of blues purists in the home and overseas. After some heart ailments compelled Kent to endure triple bypass medical procedures in 1989, he spent his recovery evaluating his lifestyle and profession, finally abandoning his longtime trucking gig and only seeking music full-time. I’m THE THING YOU NEED, his first single LP in 14 years, shortly followed for the Big Boy label and demonstrated the first within a flurry of produces that next included his Delmark debut, Ain’t It Great, which gained the Library of Congress Award for Greatest Folk/Blues Recording of 1991. Kent also authorized to the Austrian label Wolf for a set of LPs, 1991’s Ruler of Chicago’s Western Part Blues and Live at B.L.U.E.S. in Chicago. With a lot of new information to his credit, it had been unavoidable that Kent finally gained the interest of blues enthusiasts and critics throughout the world, and in 1995, he earned the W.C. Handy Prize for Greatest Blues Instrumentalist, Bass. 2 yrs later, he gained the award once again, and continued to state the award in nine consecutive years. Kent also notched five consecutive Most Excellent Blues Musician, Bass honors through the mag Living Blues, and with 1998’s Delmark discharge MAKE SPACE for the Blues got home Chicago’s Record of the entire year award. In early 2005, Kent was identified as having cancer, but continuing his active live schedule regardless of chemotherapy remedies. He dropped his struggle with the condition on March 2, 2006, only a week previous his 70th birthday.