AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Candid  / Pure Pleasure - CJS9001 - 180 gram Virgin Vinyl 

Limited Edition - Pressed at Pallas Germany

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering by Ray Staff  at Air Mastering London

 some sweet old blues here. So nice to hear Otis Spann on vinyl not like he's right in your living room but like you're right there in the juke joint with him. Really fantastic vintage sound 5/5 LPreview

 

Otis Spann may not have been the blues, but he was sure close to being the blues pianist. Spann provided wonderful, imaginative, tasty piano solos and better-than-average vocals, and was arguably the best player whose style was more restrained than animated. Not that he couldn't rock the house, but Spann's forte was making you think as well as making you dance, and the tracks on Otis Spann Is the Blues will do both.

 

Featured in Michael Fremer's Heavy Rotation in the February 2006 Issue of Stereophile! 

 

Another absolute gem from Alan Bates' Candid label, this may be Otis Spann's finest piece of work on wax. He may not have been the blues, but he was sure close to being the blues pianist. Spann provided wonderful, imaginative, tasty piano solos and better-than-average vocals. He was arguably the best player whose style was more restrained than animated. Not that he couldn't rock the house, but Spann's forte was making you think as well as making you dance.

 

This is another in Pure Pleasure's Candid Series, featuring reissues from an incredible label that met its demise some 40 years ago. The American Candid label has achieved a near legendary status among the critics and the International jazz and blues public. 

 

Otis Spann is the Blues was recorded August 23, 1960 at Fine Recording Studios in New York by George Piros, the same recording engineer who did many of the great Mercury Living Presence releases. Excellent recording.

 

Otis Spann may not have been the blues, but he was sure close to being the blues pianist. Spann provided wonderful, imaginative, tasty piano solos and better-than-average vocals, and was arguably the best player whose style was more restrained than animated. Not that he couldn't rock the house, but Spann's forte was making you think as well as making you dance, and the tracks on Otis Spann Is the Blues will do both.

 

This record is part of the series of 100% authentic analogue re-releases on 180g vinyl that have been audiophile remastered by Pure Pleasure Records.  As ever, with Pure Pleasure Records, the quality is exquisite and is well worth a listen .NOT only is there no doubting that Otis Spann is one of the finest exponents of Chicago Blues piano ever, there can also be little doubt that this record, originally released by Candid Records in 1960, is one of the best recordings of Spann as a front man - Daily Express

 

Musicians: 

Otis Spann, piano, vocals

Robert Lockwood, Jr., guitar, vocals

 

Selections:

1. The Hard Way

2. Take A Little Walk With Me

3. Otis In The Dark

4. Little Boy Blue

5. Country Boy

6. Beat-Up Team

7. My Daily Wish

8. Great Northern Stomp

9. I Got Rambling On My Mind #2

10. Worried Life Blues

 

Recorded August 23, 1960.