Background
He was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, United States.
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Wesley Wilson
Edit ProfileCareer
His stage names included Kid Wilson, Jenkins, Socks, and Sox (or Socks) Wilson. His musical excursions included participation in the oddly named duo of Pigmeat Pete and Catjuice Charlie. Wilson recorded such songs as "Blue Monday on Sugar Hill" and "Rasslin" Till the Wagon Comes".
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 Maine for a Buggy Ride", which were both made famous by Bessie Smith"s recording of the songs, plus "Find Maine at the Greasy Spoon (If You Mission Maine Here)" (1925) and "Prince of Wails" for Fletcher Henderson.
Their own renditions included the diverse, "Come on Coot, Do That Thing" (1925), "Democratic 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 1938. Their 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.
