Otis Spann's Chicago Blues

Performer: Otis Spann
Artist: James Cotton; Johnny Shines; Big Walter Horton
Engineer: Norman Dayron; Stu Black
Producer: Pete Welding
Distributor: City Hall

Notes: Personnel: Otis Spann (vocals, piano, organ); Johnny Shines, Johnny Young (guitar); James Cotton (harmonica); Jimmy Lee Morris (electric bass); Lee Jackson (bass); S.P. Leary, Robert Whitehead, Fred Below (drums). Includes liner notes by Pete Welding. Personnel: Otis Spann (vocals, piano, organ); Johnny Shines, Johnny Young (guitar); James Cotton , Big Walter Horton (harmonica); Jimmy Lee Morris (electric bass); Fred Below, Robert Whitehead, S.P. Leary (drums). Liner Note Author: Pete Welding. Recording information: 1965-1966. Photographer: Pete Welding. Recorded in 1965 and 1966, these 15 tracks are divided between solo piano performances and pieces with a full band, with support from guitarist Johnny Young and members of the Muddy Waters Band. The variation in approach means that this isn't the most consistent Spann album, and the material and performances don't rank among his best either, although they're reasonably solid. Includes some of the rare tracks on which Spann played organ rather than piano. ~ Richie Unterberger

Down Beat (5/95, p.57) - 4 Stars - Very Good - "...a tough pianist with a hard-edged voice..."

Otis Spann is considered one of blues music's greatest piano players. His career began after he settled in Chicago in the late 1940s; by the '50s he had become an ace session man for the legendary Chess label, appearing on sides by Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, and, most memorably, the great Muddy Waters. Spann would prove a key influence on the British blues boom of the 1960s, and it was through that world that he would garner his highest profile as a solo artist, even cutting an album with the Peter Green-led version of Fleetwood Mac, 1969's THE BIGGEST THING SINCE COLOSSUS. Spann died of cancer in 1970 at the age of 40.

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