Perhaps best known for his long association with the legendary Muddy Waters, Otis Spann is largely recognized as one of the greatest blues pianists of all time, if not the greatest. Although Spann made a name for himself in Chicago by the mid 1940s, it wasn’t until 1960 that he got the opportunity to record an album of his own. The sessions Spann did with Candid Records co-founder Nat Hentoff that year resulted in the legendary album Otis Spann Is The Blues. (Incidentally, this was also the first album ever recorded for the fledgling New York City based label.) The tracks on Walking The Blues were recorded during those same sessions in August of 1960 in New York City. Left on the cutting room floor, they would not be officially released until 1972, two years after Spann’s untimely death. Robert Lockwood Jr., also from Muddy Water’s group, accompanies Spann on guitar here as he does on the Is The Blues album. But Walking The Blues also features Spann’s close friend, veteran singer and composer James Oden, better known to blues fans as St. Louis Jimmy. Stripped down to just the these musicians, this magnificently performed and produced set showcases Spann’s voice as well as piano. Spann stretches out with his pulsing two-handed rhythmic attack, and brings the barrelhouse piano style of his youth in line with the modern Chicago style he embodied.
