Thirty years after his death, blues legend Otis Spann's legacy is enhanced by a recently unearthed tape of his final performance. Titled Last Call (Live at the Boston Teaparty), the nine-song set was recorded just nine days before Spann died of liver cancer in April 1970.
Coming from the same Mississippi blues tradition as Muddy Waters (who may or may not have been his half brother), Spann was a self-taught piano prodigy who worked as a member of the Chess Records house band before beginning a solo career in 1960s. He died at forty, at what was called the height of his career.
The new disc is a labor of love for Peter Malick, a veteran eastern seaboard blues guitarist who played with Spann on those final nights. By that time, the then eighteen-year-old Malick had played with Spann for more than a year, recording an album and becoming part of Spann's extended family.
"When I first played with Otis we had this instant rapport," Malick said. "We didn't have a lot to say to each other verbally but had an incredible musical connection. He wanted me to come play with him right away, but I told him no, I had to finish high school first. But as soon as I graduated I went out to Chicago." Malick, who never attended college, subsequently played with Boston's James Montgomery Band and as a solo artist before battling drug addiction in the Eighties. Throughout this time, along with his re-emergence over the past few years, he believed that the tape of Spann's final show was lost to the ages.
Two years ago, Malick got a call from a friend in L.A. who "thought he had an Otis Spann tape of mine." Not only did it turn out to be the lost gig, it was in excellent condition. So he edited the tape down from its two hours, then signed a contract with Spann's survivors and intends to release the album on his own label later this month.
The performance is not at all typical for Spann. In the first place, he was unable to sing due to side effects from the cancer. (Vocals were handled by Luther Georgia Boy "Snake" Johnson and Lucille Spann, who told the crowd her husband could not sing because of laryngitis.) The edited performance features only two Spann originals, a couple of Muddy Waters tunes as well as the most left-field selection of all, a subtle reworking of Lenny Welch's 1963 weeper, "Since I Fell For You."
That Malick's playing is more subdued than his current aggressive style isn't only because he was a shy kid. "We all knew what was happening, that it would be his last show," he recalls. "So I tried to rein myself in, and give him more of a chance to play. Lucille was doing the same thing. She tended to over-sing sometimes, but restrained herself here. So this may also be her best performance." (Lucille Spann died in 1993.)
At a gravestone dedication last June in Chicago, Malick met a number of people who had been touched by Spann. Some will be providing other unpublished photos which will either appear on the CD or on his record company's Web site, www.mrcatmusic.com. He hopes the real beneficiaries will be Spann's descendents, who are "struggling to make ends meet."
"They have received very little for Spann's extensive body of work," Malick said. "I'm hoping that this CD will make some difference in their lives."
CHARLES BERMANT
(June 28, 2000)
