Biography
Willie Kent stood as the foremost postwar Chicago blues bassist and the city's final living connection to Mississippi Delta roots. He supported legends such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Junior Parker while leading his enduring ensemble, the Gents. Born February 24, 1936, in Inverness, Mississippi, to a sharecropping household, Kent began picking cotton at age six. Local player Dewitt Munson provided his initial blues encounters, yet as a teenager he tuned into Helena, Arkansas, station KFFA and its King Biscuit Time program, absorbing the styles of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Nighthawk. By eleven he slipped regularly into the Harlem Inn, a Highway 61 club where Howlin' Wolf and Ike Turner headlined bills. At thirteen he departed for Memphis, spent a short spell working at a Florida gas station, and arrived in Chicago at sixteen. There he purchased his first guitar and traded its use to Willie Hudson for instruction. In 1959 Kent signed on as chauffeur with Hudson's group Ralph & the Red Tops, stepping onstage now and then as vocalist. When Hudson's bassist brother arrived too intoxicated to play, Kent filled in and eventually claimed the chair permanently.
Kent's profile rose after he entered Little Milton's band in 1961, and he became a fixture at Kansas City Red's storied "Blue Monday" gatherings. Colleagues admired both his skill and his dependability, qualities uncommon in blues circles, allowing him to sit in frequently with figures from Muddy Waters through Little Walter. Once he left Little Milton he performed with Arthur Stallworth & the Chicago Playboys toward the close of the 1960s, then worked alongside Hip Linkchain and Jimmy Dawkins. Returning from a European tour, Dawkins handed Kent the headline slot at West Side venue Ma Bea's Lounge, prompting Kent to assemble his first group, Sugar Bear & the Beehives, featuring guitarist Willie James Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. The club hosted his initial album, the 1975 live recording Ghetto, and remained his base for more than six years. In 1982 Kent resumed sideman work with Eddie Taylor and appeared on the guitarist's final album, the acclaimed 1985 release Bad Boy. Following Taylor's death that Christmas, Kent enlisted guitarist Johnny B. Moore and drummer Tim Taylor to launch Willie Kent & the Gents. While many peers shifted toward glossy R&B textures, the Gents upheld the traditional Delta twelve-bar form and earned devoted followings among purists in the United States and overseas.
Heart problems necessitated triple bypass surgery in 1989, after which Kent reflected on his path and abandoned trucking to devote himself fully to music. Fourteen years after his previous solo effort, he issued I'm What You Need on the Big Boy label, initiating a run of recordings that included his Delmark debut Ain't It Nice, honored by the Library of Congress as Best Folk/Blues Album of 1991. He also recorded two albums for Austria's Wolf imprint: 1991's King of Chicago's West Side Blues and Live at B.L.U.E.S. in Chicago. The resulting catalog brought wider recognition, and in 1995 Kent received the W.C. Handy Award for Best Blues Instrumentalist, Bass. He claimed the prize again in 1997 and then held it for nine straight years. Living Blues magazine named him Most Outstanding Blues Musician, Bass for five consecutive cycles, and his 1998 Delmark album Make Room for the Blues captured Chicago's Album of the Year honor. Diagnosed with cancer in early 2005, Kent maintained an active performance schedule throughout chemotherapy. He succumbed to the illness on March 2, 2006, one week after his seventieth birthday.
Kent's profile rose after he entered Little Milton's band in 1961, and he became a fixture at Kansas City Red's storied "Blue Monday" gatherings. Colleagues admired both his skill and his dependability, qualities uncommon in blues circles, allowing him to sit in frequently with figures from Muddy Waters through Little Walter. Once he left Little Milton he performed with Arthur Stallworth & the Chicago Playboys toward the close of the 1960s, then worked alongside Hip Linkchain and Jimmy Dawkins. Returning from a European tour, Dawkins handed Kent the headline slot at West Side venue Ma Bea's Lounge, prompting Kent to assemble his first group, Sugar Bear & the Beehives, featuring guitarist Willie James Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. The club hosted his initial album, the 1975 live recording Ghetto, and remained his base for more than six years. In 1982 Kent resumed sideman work with Eddie Taylor and appeared on the guitarist's final album, the acclaimed 1985 release Bad Boy. Following Taylor's death that Christmas, Kent enlisted guitarist Johnny B. Moore and drummer Tim Taylor to launch Willie Kent & the Gents. While many peers shifted toward glossy R&B textures, the Gents upheld the traditional Delta twelve-bar form and earned devoted followings among purists in the United States and overseas.
Heart problems necessitated triple bypass surgery in 1989, after which Kent reflected on his path and abandoned trucking to devote himself fully to music. Fourteen years after his previous solo effort, he issued I'm What You Need on the Big Boy label, initiating a run of recordings that included his Delmark debut Ain't It Nice, honored by the Library of Congress as Best Folk/Blues Album of 1991. He also recorded two albums for Austria's Wolf imprint: 1991's King of Chicago's West Side Blues and Live at B.L.U.E.S. in Chicago. The resulting catalog brought wider recognition, and in 1995 Kent received the W.C. Handy Award for Best Blues Instrumentalist, Bass. He claimed the prize again in 1997 and then held it for nine straight years. Living Blues magazine named him Most Outstanding Blues Musician, Bass for five consecutive cycles, and his 1998 Delmark album Make Room for the Blues captured Chicago's Album of the Year honor. Diagnosed with cancer in early 2005, Kent maintained an active performance schedule throughout chemotherapy. He succumbed to the illness on March 2, 2006, one week after his seventieth birthday.
Albums
