1. Otis Spann was an American blues musician many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.
13 Facts About Otis Spann
1. 2.
Otis Spann's mother, Josephine Erby, was a guitarist who had worked with Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith, and his stepfather, Frank Houston Spann, was a preacher and musician.
3.
One of five children, Otis Spann began playing the piano at seven, with some instruction from Friday Ford, Frank Otis Spann, and Little Brother Montgomery.
4.
Otis Spann moved to Chicago in 1946, where Big Maceo Merriweather mentored him.
5.
Otis Spann performed solo with the guitarist Morris Pejoe, working a regular spot at the Tic Toc Lounge.
6.
Otis Spann became Muddy Waters' piano player in late 1952 and participated in his first recording session with the band on September 24,1953.
7.
Otis Spann recorded a session with the guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr.
8.
Otis Spann worked with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton on recordings for Decca and with James Cotton for Prestige in 1964.
9.
Otis Spann worked on albums with Buddy Guy, Big Mama Thornton, Peter Green, and Fleetwood Mac in the late 1960s.
10.
DVD recordings of Otis Spann include his performances at the Newport Jazz Festival, the American Folk Blues Festival, the Blues Masters, and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
11.
Otis Spann was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
12.
Otis Spann was posthumously elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980.
13.
On November 13,2012, Otis Spann received a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker plaque, erected at 547 South Roach Street in Jackson, Mississippi, where the family lived in the 1930s and 1940s.