Otis Spann
Encyclopedia
Otis Spann was an American
blues
musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues
pianist.
, United States
, Spann became known for his distinct piano style.
Born to Frank Houston Spann and Josephine Erby. One of five children - three boys and two girls. His father played piano, non professionally, while his mother had played guitar with Memphis Minnie
. Spann began playing piano by age of eight, influenced by his local ivories stalwart, Friday Ford. At the age of 14, he was playing in bands around Jackson, finding more inspiration in the 78s
of Big Maceo Merriweather
, who took the young pianist under his wing once Spann migrated to Chicago in 1946. Other sources say that he moved to Chicago when his mother died in 1947 playing the Chicago club circuit and working as a plasterer. Spann gigged on his own, and with guitarist Morris Pejoe, working a regular spot at the Tic Toc Lounge before hooking up with Muddy Waters
in 1952.
Although he recorded periodically as a solo artist, Spann was a full-time member of the Muddy Waters band from 1952 to 1968. In that period he also did session
work with other Chess artists like Howlin' Wolf
and Bo Diddley
.
Spann's own Chess Records
output was limited to a 1954 single
, "It Must Have Been the Devil" / "Five Spot", which featured B.B. King and Jody Williams
on guitars. He recorded a session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and vocalist St. Louis Jimmy
in 1960, which was issued on Otis Spann Is The Blues and Walking The Blues. A largely solo outing for Storyville Records
in 1963 was recorded in Copenhagen
. A set for UK Decca Records
the following year found him in the company of Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton
, and a 1964 album for Prestige followed where Spann shared vocal duties with bandmate James Cotton
.
The Blues is Where It's At, Spann's 1966 album for ABC-Bluesway, sounded like a live recording. It was a recording studio
date, enlivened by enthusiastic onlookers that applauded every song (Muddy Waters, guitarist Sammy Lawhorn
, and George "Harmonica" Smith were among the support crew). A Bluesway encore, The Bottom of the Blues followed in 1967 and featured Spann's wife, Lucille Jenkins Spann (June 23, 1938 – August 2, 1994), helping out on vocals.
In the late 1960s, he appeared on albums with Buddy Guy
, Big Mama Thornton
, Peter Green
and Fleetwood Mac
.
Several films of his playing are available on DVD
, including the Newport Folk Festival
(1960), while his singing is also featured on the American Folk Blues Festival
(1963) and The Blues Masters (1966).
in Chicago
in 1970, at the age of 40, he was interred in the Burr Oak Cemetery
, Alsip, Illinois
.
He was posthumously elected to the Blues Hall of Fame
in 1980.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
pianist.
Career
Born in Jackson, MississippiJackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Spann became known for his distinct piano style.
Born to Frank Houston Spann and Josephine Erby. One of five children - three boys and two girls. His father played piano, non professionally, while his mother had played guitar with Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
. Spann began playing piano by age of eight, influenced by his local ivories stalwart, Friday Ford. At the age of 14, he was playing in bands around Jackson, finding more inspiration in the 78s
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
of Big Maceo Merriweather
Big Maceo Merriweather
Big Maceo Merriweather was an American Chicago blues pianist and singer, active in Chicago in the 1940s.-Career:...
, who took the young pianist under his wing once Spann migrated to Chicago in 1946. Other sources say that he moved to Chicago when his mother died in 1947 playing the Chicago club circuit and working as a plasterer. Spann gigged on his own, and with guitarist Morris Pejoe, working a regular spot at the Tic Toc Lounge before hooking up with Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
in 1952.
Although he recorded periodically as a solo artist, Spann was a full-time member of the Muddy Waters band from 1952 to 1968. In that period he also did session
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
work with other Chess artists like Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
and Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
.
Spann's own Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
output was limited to a 1954 single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "It Must Have Been the Devil" / "Five Spot", which featured B.B. King and Jody Williams
Jody Williams
Jody Williams is an American teacher and aid worker who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the campaign she worked for, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines...
on guitars. He recorded a session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and vocalist St. Louis Jimmy
St. Louis Jimmy Oden
James Burke "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden was an American blues vocalist and songwriter.Born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, Oden sang and taught himself to play the piano in childhood. In his teens, he left home to go to St. Louis, Missouri where piano-based blues was prominent...
in 1960, which was issued on Otis Spann Is The Blues and Walking The Blues. A largely solo outing for Storyville Records
Storyville Records
Storyville Records is a large international record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark, specializing in jazz and blues music. Besides its original material, Storyville Records has licensed and reissued many vintage jazz recordings that previously appeared on such labels as Paramount Records,...
in 1963 was recorded in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. A set for UK Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
the following year found him in the company of Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, and a 1964 album for Prestige followed where Spann shared vocal duties with bandmate James Cotton
James Cotton
James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...
.
The Blues is Where It's At, Spann's 1966 album for ABC-Bluesway, sounded like a live recording. It was a recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
date, enlivened by enthusiastic onlookers that applauded every song (Muddy Waters, guitarist Sammy Lawhorn
Sammy Lawhorn
Sammy David Lawhorn was an American Chicago blues guitarist. He is best known for his membership of Muddy Waters band, although his guitar work accompanied many other blues musicians including Otis Spann, Willie Cobbs, Eddie Boyd, Roy Brown, Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, and...
, and George "Harmonica" Smith were among the support crew). A Bluesway encore, The Bottom of the Blues followed in 1967 and featured Spann's wife, Lucille Jenkins Spann (June 23, 1938 – August 2, 1994), helping out on vocals.
In the late 1960s, he appeared on albums with Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million...
, Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
and Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
.
Several films of his playing are available on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, including the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
(1960), while his singing is also featured on the American Folk Blues Festival
American Folk Blues Festival
The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe beginning in 1962.German jazz publicist Joachim-Ernst Berendt first had the idea of bringing original African-American blues performers to Europe. Jazz had become very popular, and rock and roll was just gaining a foothold,...
(1963) and The Blues Masters (1966).
Death
Following his death from liver cancerHepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1970, at the age of 40, he was interred in the Burr Oak Cemetery
Burr Oak Cemetery and Restvale Cemetery
Burr Oak Cemetery is a cemetery located in unincorporated Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Alsip, a suburb slightly southwest of Chicago. As one of the few cemeteries focused on the needs of the African-American community, it is the final resting place of many black celebrities, including...
, Alsip, Illinois
Alsip, Illinois
Alsip is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,725 at the 2000 census. It is a suburb of Chicago.Alsip was settled in the 1830s by German and Dutch farmers. The village is named after Frank Alsip, the owner of a brickyard that opened there in 1885...
.
He was posthumously elected to the Blues Hall of Fame
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
in 1980.
Solo
- Otis Spann is The Blues (1960)
- Goodmorning Mr Blues (1963)
- The Blues is Where It's At (released 1963)
- The Blues of Otis Spann (1964)
- The Blues Never Die! (1964)
- Chicago/The Blues/Today! Vol.1 (1966)
- The Bottom of the Blues (1968)
- Cracked Spanner Head (1969)
- The Biggest Thing Since ColossusThe Biggest Thing Since ColossusThe Biggest Thing Since Colossus is an album by American blues musician Otis Spann, released in 1969 . The album is also notable for the fact that Spann's backing band on this occasion were members of Fleetwood Mac, who were touring in America at the time...
(1969) - Cryin' Time (recorded 1968, released 1970)
- Walking The Blues (recorded 1960, released 1972)
- Last Call: Live at Boston Tea Party (recorded 1970, released 2000)
- Complete Blue Horizon Sessions (recorded 1969, released 2006)
With other artists
- Robert Lockwood, Jr. - Is The Blues (1960)
- Muddy Waters - At Newport (1960)
- Lonnie Johnson - Portraits in Blues vol 6 (1963)
- "Brother" Waters & Eric Clapton - Raw Blues (recorded 1964, released 1967)
- Chicago/The Blues/Today! Vol. 2 (as part of The Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet) (1966)
- Buddy Guy - A Man & The Blues (1968)
- Muddy Waters - Fathers & Sons (1969)
- Johnny Shines - Last Night's Dream (piano on Pipeline Blues) (1969)
- Junior Wells - Southside Jam Blues (1969)
- Fleetwood Mac in Chicago/Blues Jam in Chicago, Vols. 1-2 (1969)
- Muddy Waters - Mud in Your Ear (1967, released 1973)
- Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson - Bosses of the Blues, Vol. 2 (recorded 1970, released 1991)
- Floyd Jones & Eddie Taylor - Masters of Modern Blues, Vol. 3 (recorded 1966, released 1994)
- Muddy Waters & His Blues Band with Otis Spann - Live The Life (Live) (recorded 1964, released 1997)
- T-Bone Walker & Joe Turner - Super Black Blues, Vol. 1 (recorded 1969, released 2001)
See also
- List of blues musicians
- List of Storyville Records artists
- List of people from Mississippi
- Chicago bluesChicago bluesThe Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...