Hello John, The Otis Spann story wasn't quite done last week so I featured the rest this week. All of the old masters paid their dues to play the Blues. I like reading about them. Hope you do too. As you can see, we've got a great show on tap this weekend at the RR. It's a membership drive and a good time for renewal. We can use the help fo please make plans to come by the table and say "Hi." Carla has been doing a much better job at compiling the Out & About section than I did. She has added a bunch of things that make everyone more inclusive. If you've had trouble with your membership talk to us on Saturday or contact Carla Landwerth on FB and it'll get fixed. Also if you haven't been receiving the newsletter contact us again. Have a week! Jim Crawford Phoenix Blues Society phoenixblues.com |
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Otis
by John Cohassey
Spann's performance on his 1960 cut "This is The Blues" was described by Peter J. Silvester in A Left Hand Like God as "an impressive tour de force, using a variety of boogie-woogie bass figures against a scintillating and dazzling display of pyrotechnics in the right hand (which, however, rely heavily on repeated chords with crashing force). Some may regard this piece-- not without just foundation--as the ultimate development of the boogie-woogie piano; others may consider that the 'modernity' of its musical language and style place it beyond the confines of the boogie-woogie idiom." During the same year, Spann displayed his talents with the Muddy Waters band at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival. Appearing at the Sunday afternoon blues program of the festival--a performance later released as the now-classic Chess album Muddy Water at Newport-- Spann joined Waters and bandmembers drummer Francis Clay and bassist Andrew Stevenson for a set which featured a rousing version of "Got My Mojo Working." For the show Spann contributed one vocal number "Goodbye Newport Blues," a slow blues written by African American poet Langston Hughes which lamented the Newport City Council's decision to cancel the concert series, after a Saturday night riotous crowd attempted to gain entrance to the sold-out festival. In 1962 Spann provided the piano accompaniment for several of Buddy Guy's Chess sides including "First Time I Met The Blues" and "Stone Crazy." In the following year, while on tour in London with the Muddy Waters band, he recorded with Waters's unit and several guest horn players for the solo effort The Blues of Otis Spann. While in Europe he also attended a Copenhagen recording session with Sonny Boy Williamson. Spann then released the 1965 Prestige solo album which featured Waters under the alias "Dirty Rivers." The prominence of Spann's talent in the Chicago scene was celebrated on the Vanguard label's 1966 blues series, Chicago/The Blues Today! Vol. I. One of the featured artists on the album, Spann performed in duo setting with drummer S.P. Leary. In his original review of the album for Jazz magazine, John F. Szwed commented, "Spann's full-handed piano approach is in great tradition of classic blues pianists the easy rolling beat, the surprising flights of the right hand--and one is fooled into believing that a four piece band is backing him." On the second volume of the Vanguard's series, Spann, along with guitarist J. Madison, and drummer S.P. Leary, comprised the "Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet." The session produced a fine rendition of Cotton's 1954 Sun recording "Cotton Crop Blues" and a remake of Jackie Brenston's 1951 Sun hit "Rocket 88." With the Muddy Waters band, Spann backed John Lee Hooker for the 1966 LP Live at the Cafe Au-Go-Go. Recalling the collaboration Hooker stated, as quoted in Blues Guitar, "I really enjoyed when we did the Cafe Au-Go-Go in New York, me and Otis Spann and Muddy Waters. Otis was one of the greatest piano players of the blues ever...A good man, too. Loyal, friendly, no ego...just a perfect gentlemen." Inspired by Hooker's Cafe' Au-Go-Go album, Bluesway invited Spann to record his 1966 solo album, The Blues is Where it's At. Recorded in front of a live studio audience and backed by the Muddy Waters band, the album captured many fine moments, especially the opening number, "Popcorn Man," written by Waters. In 1967 Spann married singer Lucille Jenkins and featured her, along with the Muddy Waters band, on the Bluesway LP The Bottom of the Blues. That same year, he recorded with the Waters band for the Muse album Muddy Waters/Mud In Your Ear and Buddy Guy's Vanguard release, A Man and The Blues. In 1969 Spann performed on Muddy Waters's half-studio and half-live double-album, Fathers and Sons, a critically acclaimed recording which showcases Spann, the fine harmonica of Paul Butterfield, and guitarist Michael Bloomfield. Spann left the Waters band in 1969 and released his Vanguard solo album Cryin' Time, backed by the gifted Chicago blues guitarist Luther Tucker, who was relegated to playing rhythm guitar, leaving the lead guitar work to Barry Melton of the rock group Country Joe and the Fish. Spann also guested on the 1969 all star blues LP Super Black Blues and toured the college circuit and various nightclub venues with his wife Lucille. That same year saw the releaseof Spann's album Cracked Spanner Head--with vocal material culled from the album The Blues of Otis Spann--complete with pseudo-abstract cover art intended to promote sales among the psychedelic rock audience. In 1970 Spann took part in his last recording session for Junior Wells's Delmark LP South Side Blues Jam, which captured Spann, Wells, and Buddy Guy in a relaxed afterhours atmosphere. Spann was responsible for selecting several of the album's traditional cover songs, and his rolling piano work added drive and intensity to such numbers as Wells's rendition of Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down" and the Waters hit "I Just Want to Make Love to You." In the early spring of 1970, writer and music researcher Peter Guralnick visited Spann's Chicago apartment and found the pianist in good spirits, but extremely underweight with a "painfully emaciated face." A few weeks later, Spann entered Cook County Hospital where he died of cancer on April 24, 1970. Scheduled to play the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, Spann received a posthumous tribute by the event's organizers who renamed the festival site "Otis Spann Memorial Field." A decade after his death, Spann was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Musicians and critics alike have continued to hail Spann's piano talent. In the late 1960s Muddy Waters told Sheldon Harris, in Jazz Journal, that he considered Otis Spann "the best blues piano player we have today. There is no one left like him who plays the real, solid, bottom blues." Samuel Charters, in his liner notes to Chicago/The Blues Today!, stated that Spann "without argument or qualification, is one of the greatest blues piano men who ever lived." In an age dominated by guitarists and harmonica soloists dependent on excessive volume, Spann's thundering piano style, with its vibrant expression and articulate attack, represents a vital contribution in the shaping of postwar Chicago blues. |
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Music Makers
Big Pete Pearson bigpeteblues Facebook
Cold Shott and The Hurricane Horns www.coldshott.com Facebook
The Sugar Thieves www.sugarthieves.com Facebook
Gary Zak & The Outbacks www.outbackbluesband.com Facebook
Hans Olson www.hansolson.net Facebook
Rocket 88s www.rocket88s.net Facebook
JC& The Rockers www.thejukerockers.com Facebook
Carvin Jones www.carvinjones.com Facebook
Hoodoo Casters www.hoodoocasters.com Facebook
Nina Curri www.ninacurri.com Facebook
Paris James www.parisjames.com Facebook
Mother Road Trio www.motherroadtrio.com Facebook
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Eric Ramsey ericramsey.net Facebook
Leon J Facebook Cadillac Assembly Line Facebook
Innocent Joe and the Hostile Witnesses Facebook
Chuck Hall Facebook
Genevieve (Gypsy) Castorena Facebook
Hooter's Blues Facebook
Pop Top Facebook
Tommy Grills Band Facebook
Sweet Baby Ray SweetBabyRaysBlues.com Facebook
Billy G & The Kids billgarvin.com Facebook
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True Flavor Blues Facebook
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Michael Coleman Grodin Facebook
The Black Hole Facebook theblackholeblues.com
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Dennis Hererra https://dasentertainmnt.com/ Facebook
Venues The Rhythm Room Facebook Westside Blues & Jazz Facebook Janey's Cave Creek Facebook The Blooze Bar Facebook Chars Facebook https://www.thehallelujahbluesband.com/ OUT & ABOUT
Tuesday, March 28 Gypsy & Hooter’s Blues JAM, 6 p.m., Pho Cao, Scottsdale Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Florigino’s Pizza & Pasta, Gilbert Wednesday, March 29 Tool Shed JAM, 7 p.m., The Blooze, Phoenix Johnny Miller JAM, 7 p.m., Hooper's, Glendale
The Black Hole, 2 p.m., The Roadhouse, Cave Creek Carvin Jones, Rio Grande Theatre, Las Cruces, NM Thursday, March 30 Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar Bar & Grill, Apache Junction
Eric Ramsey, 6 p.m., Short Leash Hot Dogs, Phoenix
The Black Hole, 1:30 p.m., Hideaway, Cave Creek Carvin Jones, The Brooks & Bates Theatre, San Angelo, TX
Bubba and the Big Bad Blues Band, 8 p.m, The Rhythm Room Friday, March 31 Hans Olson, 7 p.m., The Time Out Lounge, Tempe
The Black Hole, 8:30 p.m., Murphy’s Law Irish Pub, Chandler
John Primer & Bob Corritore Allstar Blues Review, 8 p.m., The Rhythm Room
NOLAZ Band, 7:30 p.m., Westside Blues & Jazz, Glendale
Saturday, April 1
A Salute to The Three Kings, 8 p.m., The Rhythm Room, Phoenix (See poster for artists)
JC & The Rockers, 7:30 p.m., Fibber Magees Irish Restaurant & Pub, Chandler
Cadillac Assembly Line, 1 p.m., Stacy’s at Dunlap, inside Let It Roll, Phoenix
The Black Hole, 5:00 p.m., Fountain Hills Music Festival 2023, Fountain Hills
The Black Hole, 8 p.m., Roadhouse, Cave Creek
Sunday, April 2 Rocket 88’s JAM, 4 p.m., Chopper John’s, Phoenix
Pop Top, 2p.m., Stacy’s at Dunlap, inside Let It Roll, Phoenix
Poppy Harpman & The Storm, 5 p.m., Desert Foothills Park Concert In The Park, Ahwatukee
True Flavor Blues, 3 p.m., Westside Blues & Jazz, Glendale Monday, April 3 |
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