Otis Spann - Otis Spann Is The Blues

One of the purest and most essential blues recordings ever committed to tape. Recorded in New York City on August 23, 1960, Otis Spann Is The Blues holds a remarkable double distinction: it was the first solo album ever recorded by Otis Spann, and the first release ever issued on the fledgling Candid Records label, produced by Candid co-founder, jazz critic, and social activist Nat Hentoff.

Despite being widely regarded as the greatest Chicago blues pianist of his generation and a cornerstone of the Muddy Waters Band for over a decade, Spann had never been given the opportunity to headline a record of his own. When that moment finally arrived, he made it count. Stripped down to just piano and guitar, the session pairs Spann with Robert Lockwood Jr., Muddy Waters' own guitarist and the stepson and only known student of Robert Johnson, whose towering influence on American music would be fully revealed to the world just one year later. The result is forty-four minutes of blues at its most intimate and commanding, the two musicians trading vocals and intertwining their instruments with a chemistry that sounds as natural and inevitable as breathing.

As AllMusic put it, Spann's gift was making you think as well as making you dance, and every track on this album does both. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau would later call him the greatest modern blues pianist. Otis Spann Is The Blues is the record that makes the case.