Cecil Gant was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1915. His early years are a faded stain, of which nothing is known, nor probably ever will be known.

Our first glimpse of him is in 1944: a small colored soldier in a loud crowd at a warbond rally on the corner of Broadway and Ninth in Los Angeles. He approaches the bandstand during an intermission and asks to play the piano. They let him. He goes over so well that the local campaign committee seeks and receives permission from his commanding officer for Gant to perform at all Treasury Bond rallies in the L.A. area.