Search - Otis Spann :: Good Morning Mr Blues

Low Down and Rolling

possum willie | Budapest | 05/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard Otis Spann in person when I was 13 and it changed my life. The light classics and hymms that "Miss May", my piano teacher, was making me practice and that my mom requested for her friends, had to go. Instead, I started every day after school working on a steady bass with a roaming, riffng right hand... and it's stood me in good stead (although Mom and Miss May couldn't understand why I gave up "pretty" music). This CD is Spann at his best, gravel-voiced and blues-savant piano playing, not polished-slick but excellent techique and so...oo..oo soulful. When he was playing with Mr. Morganfield, Otis Spann was oftern drowned out by electric instruments but not here. You cannot compare his fine solo work to garden-variety blues players. Once you hear even a bar or two, it moves you and you know Mr. Spann is working in his inimitable style. This album along with some good whiskey can get you through all sorts of heart aches, bad love affairs, and brushes with fate. You can actually get down and wallow in it and yet, Otis Spann has the capacity to make one feel good too. If you have one blues singer/piano player CD, this could be it. I've kept it by my side in one form or another since 1972 and covered a lot of ground...once you buy it, you won't leave home without it."

A jewel among all piano blues recordings

possum willie | 02/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Otis Spann was arguably one of the truly great piano blues players in history. He is mostly known for his collaboration in Muddy Water's band ("Chicago blues"). This recording documents his outstanding abilities as a solo piano artist and singer. The recording was made in a studio in Denmark using high quality audio equipment, so despite its age (over 40 years) the sound quality is excellent (which, unfortunately, can not be said about many of the other Otis Spann records). Otis Span plays the piano in a very beautiful way. His left hand is on par with the right hand leading to a very rhythmic and powerful sound which impresses not only by clarity and technical perfection, but also by a great dynamic range. And all of this without the electronic amplifying equipment which is so popular today!"

Profound and soulful

D. R. Gjelten | 06/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've listened to this album since I had the LP in the late sixties. It is as stunning today as it was then. The piano playing is clean and technically very impressive, as well as carrying tons of feeling. Spann's voice, all alone with the piano, so clearly recorded that you can hear his breathing and contained in those breaths is all the life that he lived. This is a very, very special recording, one I keep returning to. "Spann's Boogie" will make you laugh and get up and dance. When I want to play air piano, this is the tune I play. "Good Morning Mr. Blues" will remind you of all the Monday mornings you've ever experienced. Buy this record. Buy it right now. I mean it."