A foundational figure in the ensembles that Muddy Waters led through the 1950s and 1960s, pianist, singer, and songwriter Otis Spann earned broad recognition as the defining postwar blues keyboardist. Between 1953 and 1969 he appeared on nearly all of Waters’ landmark Chess recordings, supplying the rhythmic force behind such jukebox and radio successes as “Got My Mojo Working” and “Mannish Boy.” Spann forged a robust, energetic fusion of boogie-woogie and stride that helped shape the Chicago blues piano idiom. His first album as leader, the 1960 release Otis Spann Is the Blues, also showcased guitar and vocals by Robert Lockwood, Jr. Two years later The Blues of Otis Spann surfaced, spotlighting the enigmatic guitarist “Brother,” a name Waters used for the session. For the Bluesway label Spann produced the well-regarded 1966 album The Blues Is Where It’s At and its 1968 follow-up The Bottom of the Blues. Five further LPs appeared in 1969, among them Cryin’ Time on Vanguard, The Biggest Thing Since Colossus on Blue Horizon, and Super Black Blues, a collaboration with T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner. Posthumously, he entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980.
Details surrounding Spann’s birth remain unsettled. While some accounts place his arrival in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1930, researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc examined census and official documents to establish that he was born in Belzoni, Mississippi, in 1924. Apocryphal reports identify a pianist named Friday Ford as his birth father. His mother, Josephine Erby, played guitar alongside Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith. Frank Houston Spann, the stepfather who raised him, worked as both a preacher and a musician; Otis was one of five children. He began studying piano at age seven under guidance from Friday Ford, Frank Spann, and reportedly Little Brother Montgomery. By fourteen he was performing with local groups around Jackson, drawing inspiration from Big Maceo’s 78 rpm discs. After his mother’s passing he accompanied his stepfather to Chicago and took work as a bricklayer. In the city he balanced day jobs with musical prospects until Big Maceo mentored the young pianist.
Spann performed solo and alongside guitarist Morris Pejoe before joining Waters in 1952. His initial Chess session with the bandleader the following year yielded “Blow Wind Blow.” Subsequent Waters classics that feature Spann’s piano include “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I’m Ready,” and “Just Make Love to Me.”
Despite his talent, Chess overlooked Spann’s singing voice. His only official Chess vocal release was the 1954 single “It Must Have Been the Devil,” which included B.B. King on guitar; additional 1956 and 1963 dates stayed unreleased for years. He therefore recorded elsewhere, cutting the acclaimed Otis Spann Is the Blues for Candid with Robert Jr. Lockwood in 1960 and joining Lonnie Johnson in Copenhagen in 1963 for material that became the 1964 Storyville album See See Rider, which also contained largely solo tracks. The British Decca set The Blues of Otis Spann, also from 1964, placed him with Waters (credited as “Brother”) and Eric Clapton. That same year he made The Blues Never Die! for Prestige, sharing vocals with James Cotton. Testament issued Otis Spann’s Chicago Blues in 1965.
Spann’s 1966 Bluesway album The Blues Is Where It’s At was staged to resemble a live recording yet was captured in the studio with an audience of enthusiastic listeners applauding each number; Waters, guitarist Sammy Lawhorn, and George “Harmonica” Smith supplied support. A second Bluesway effort, The Bottom of the Blues, arrived in 1968 and featured vocals from his wife, Lucille Spann. Later that year he taped Cryin’ Time for Vanguard.
Spann’s final period with Waters produced the Chess album Fathers and Sons, but he increasingly sought an independent path. He signed with Blue Horizon and enlisted Fleetwood Mac as his backing band for 1969’s The Biggest Thing Since Colossus. After relinquishing the Waters piano chair to Pinetop Perkins in 1969, he issued The Everlasting Blues vs. Otis Spann and Up in the Queen’s Pad on Spivey, Super Black Blues with T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner on BluesTime/Flying Dutchman, and Sweet Giant of the Blues on Prestige. Archival material from a 1960 New York session also appeared that year as I Was Raised in Mississippi.
Time ran short for Spann to realize his solo ambitions. He succumbed to liver cancer in April 1970. That year Delmark released Southside Blues Jam by Junior Wells, recorded between 1969 and early 1970 with Spann featured alongside the leader and guitarist Buddy Guy; the set drew widespread acclaim for his inventive solos and interplay with Guy.
In 1972 the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival renamed its grounds Otis Spann Memorial Field. Eight years later he joined nineteen fellow artists in the inaugural Blues Hall of Fame class.
For nearly thirty years Spann’s grave remained unmarked. Steve Salter, president of the Killer Blues Headstone Project, appealed to Blues Revue magazine for assistance. Following publication of an editorial, blues fans worldwide contributed funds. On June 6, 1999, the headstone was dedicated in a private ceremony. Spann’s recordings continue to surface on numerous compilations, and his catalog has undergone repeated reissues.
