Otis Spann (March 21, 1924 or 1930 – April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading post-war Chicago blues pianist.
Sources differ over Spann's early years. Many sources state that he was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1930, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc concluded, on the basis of census records and other official information, that he was born in 1924 in Belzoni, Mississippi.Spann's father was, according to some sources, a pianist called Friday Ford. His mother, Josephine Erby, was a guitarist who had worked with Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith, and his stepfather, Frank Houston Spann, was a preacher and musician. One of five children, Spann began playing the piano at the age of seven, with some instruction from Friday Ford, Frank Spann, and Little Brother Montgomery.
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| Otis Spann & Muddy Waters |
Spann's work for Chess Records includes the 1954 single "It Must Have Been the Devil" backed with "Five Spot", with B.B. King and Jody Williams on guitars. During his time at Chess he played on a few of Chuck Berry's early records, including the studio version of "You Can't Catch Me". In 1956, he recorded two unreleased tracks with Big Walter Horton and Robert Lockwood. He recorded a
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session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and vocalist St.
Louis Jimmy in New York on August 23, 1960, which was issued on the albums Otis Spann Is the Blues and Walking the Blues. A 1963 session for Storyville Records was recorded in Copenhagen. He worked with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton on recordings for Decca and with James Cotton for Prestige in 1964.
session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. and vocalist St.Louis Jimmy in New York on August 23, 1960, which was issued on the albums Otis Spann Is the Blues and Walking the Blues. A 1963 session for Storyville Records was recorded in Copenhagen. He worked with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton on recordings for Decca and with James Cotton for Prestige in 1964.
He worked on albums with Buddy Guy, Big Mama Thornton, Peter
Green, and Fleetwood Mac in the late 1960s. In 2012, Silk City Records released Someday which featured live and studio performances from 1967 produced by the noted blues guitarist Son Lewis. Spann's last few years with Muddy Waters were memorable for their collaboration on the Chess set Fathers and Sons, but the pianist was clearly ready to launch a solo career, recording a set for Blue Horizon with British blues-rockers Fleetwood Mac that produced Spann's laidback "Hungry Country Girl." He finally turned the piano chair in the Waters band over to Pinetop Perkins in 1969, but fate didn't grant Spann long to achieve solo stardom.
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Spann died of liver cancer in Chicago in 1970. He was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. His grave was unmarked for almost thirty years, until Steve Salter (president of the Killer Blues Headstone Project) wrote a letter to Blues Revue magazine, saying, "This piano great is lying in an unmarked grave. Let's do something about this deplorable situation". Blues enthusiasts from around the world sent donations to purchase a headstone. On June 6, 1999, the marker was unveiled in a private ceremony. The stone is inscribed, "Otis played the deepest blues we ever heard – He'll play forever in our hearts".
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| Otis with Mick Fleetwood |
Spann died of liver cancer in Chicago in 1970. He was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. His grave was unmarked for almost thirty years, until Steve Salter (president of the Killer Blues Headstone Project) wrote a letter to Blues Revue magazine, saying, "This piano great is lying in an unmarked grave. Let's do something about this deplorable situation". Blues enthusiasts from around the world sent donations to purchase a headstone. On June 6, 1999, the marker was unveiled in a private ceremony. The stone is inscribed, "Otis played the deepest blues we ever heard – He'll play forever in our hearts".
He was posthumously elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980.
(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)