Otis Spann Walking the Blues (CD)

(Candid Records) 11 tracks, digisleeve

Although Spann had already made a name for himself in Chicago in the mid-1940s, it wasn't until 1960 that he was given the opportunity to record his own album. Otis Spann Is The Blues is not only the first solo album by Otis Spann, but also the first album recorded for the young New York label Candid Records. Produced by Candid co-founder, famed music critic and social activist Nat Hentoff, the album features not one, but two legends at the peak of their powers - Otis Spann and Robert Lockwood Jr.

Lockwood, the guitarist for Muddy Water, was an obvious choice to accompany Spann on these recordings in August 1960. It's worth noting that Lockwood was a longtime collaborator of Sonny Boy Williamson and was the stepson and only student of then virtually unknown blues musician Robert Johnson. (Columbia Records released Robert Johnson King Of The Delta Blues Singers the following year, changing the course of music history forever).

This superbly produced and performed set showcases both Spann's voice and his piano. Backed only by Lockwood's guitar, Spann stretches out with his pulsing, two-handed rhythm, balancing the barrelhouse piano style of his youth with the modern Chicago style he embodied.

These sessions also produced additional material that ended up on Candid's Otis Spann album Walkin' The Blues, released posthumously in 1972.