Otis Spann
March 21, 1930 - April 25, 1970
Birthplace: Jackson, Mississippi

Best known as the pianist in the legendary Muddy Waters Band, Otis Spann was also a noted solo artist in the 1960s. His blend of traditional boogie-woogie bass figures and slow blues chord structures gave his piano style its emotional depth. In a band format, Spann was the ideal accompanist. He could melt into the rhythm section with full-bodied, but unobtrusive, riffs or could break out into the open with a powerful solo. Spann was also a convincing vocalist. His hazy voice seemed dulled by years of abuse, yet it contained the kind of blue tones that often took a song to a higher emotional plane.

Spann was mostly self-taught. After playing piano in his minister father's church in Mississippi, Spann split his time performing in juke joints and house parties with stints as a semipro football player and professional boxer. He went into the army in 1946. Upon being discharged in 1951, he settled in Chicago and began playing the city's blues clubs. In 1953 he joined the Muddy Waters band. Almost at once Spann's piano became an integral part of Waters' rocking blues sound and a mainstay in the band. In addition to recording with Waters, Spann also cut sides with Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and other Chess artists, becoming something of a house pianist at the label.

Spann began his solo career in 1960 when he cut Otis Spann Is the Blues accompanied by Robert Lockwood, Jr. on guitar, though he continued to perform and record with Waters. Spann performed with the Waters Band at the now- legendary 1960 Newport Jazz Festival. The resulting live album, Muddy Waters at Newport, included "Goodbye Newport Blues," a song sung by Spann. The success of Spann's debut album enabled him to record extensively in the l960s. He made records for a number of labels, including Testament, Fontana, Prestige, Storyville, Decca, Blue Horizon, and Vanguard. He often recorded using the Waters Band (The Blues of Otis Spann) or members of it (The Blues Never Die and Otis Spann s Chicago Blues). Spann also performed extensively in the '60s, touring Europe a number of times with and without the Waters Band and playing most major American blues festivals. In 1970, at the height of his career, Spann was diagnosed with cancer; he died that year at age forty. He was elected into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980.