Page 59 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2023 Digital Edition

Otis Spann woogie beat to go along
1924–1970 with her natural skill with a
Active: 1950s–1970 ballad. Like Memphis Slim,
Otis Spann defined the Champion Jack Dupree
Chicago style of blues piano. and many others, she found
Not only was he a devastating that international audiences
soloist, his approach became often treated her with more
the driving force behind the respect than stateside
great Muddy Waters for the crowds. She actually moved
better part of 15 years. In to Australia for several years
the late 1940s and into the and commuted to Europe.
‘50s, Muddy Waters had Beginning in the 1940s, she
bands that were so tight and musically flawless, they were almost became the DLS (designated lounge singer) in several movies,
laughable. Along with Spann, there was second guitarist Jimmy including In A Lonely Place, which was directed by Nicholas
Rogers and harmonica genius Little Walter. They were known as Ray, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. Ms.
the Headhunters. No one dared follow them onstage, and the Brooks never really stopped playing, performing at Johnny
th
Hemi engine that stepped on the gas and drove them into third Depp’s Viper Room on her 80 birthday.
gear was Otis Spann on piano. Listen to your Muddy Waters
records, notice that call-and-response, preacher and congregation Professor Longhair
interplay between Muddy and Otis. Muddy had several pianists, born Henry Roeland Byrd
but Spann was the standard bearer. Inventive and accessible 1918–1980
to even the most casual listener, Spann was to the blues piano Active: 1948–1980
what Chuck Berry was to the guitar – simple, but with an instantly No one ever had a more
recognizable style and irresistible rhythm. Listen to any modern distinct style than this giant
players from Daryl Davis to Victor Wainwright to Marcia Ball, of New Orleans music and
and you’ll hear traces of Otis Spann all night long. culture. Professor Longhair
combined boogie-woogie,
Memphis Slim blues, calypso, rhumba,
born Peter Chatman mambo and a keen sense
1915–1988 of playful humor to establish
Active: 1932–1988 an entire style named after him. His signature song, “Mardi
Chatman was the most Gras in New Orleans,” has endured and become an anthem
commercially successful heard on virtually every corner of the city during Mardi Gras.
When I was checking into the New Orleans Hilton, it was
of the original stylists. He
occupied a world between playing on the house streaming system. His style was absolute
the itinerant old time genius and his influence reaches around the world. There are
traveling piano players budding piano players that still spend hours trying to figure
who rode the rails from the complex figures laid down on the ivories by “Fess.”
Southern town to town
– working turpentine camps, brothels and the gin joints – Sunnyland Slim
and went on to commercial success in Chicago on Chess born Albert Luandrew
Records. Slim was a suave and worldly artist, spending 1907–1995
his last years as a French-only-speaking expat in Paris. His Active: 1946–1995
signature song “Everyday I Have the Blues” (originally titled He had the biggest
“Nobody Loves Me”) became yet another classic recorded hands I’d ever seen; he
by everyone from Mahalia Jackson to Jimi Hendrix to (once could easily reach 13 notes
again) Eric Clapton. He recorded over 500 songs in his on the piano. Regarded
career and had charting hits with over a dozen of his as one of the architects of
sophisticated-style blues. what became known as
the “Chicago Sound,” Slim
Hadda Brooks played a raggedy, juke joint,
1916–2002 barrelhouse style that turned even the squarest, non-smoking,
Active: 1945–2002 alcohol-free listening room into a smoky backwoods Turpentine
“The Queen of the Boogie” had her first hit in 1945. Camp Dancehall on a hot Saturday night on pay week. He
Listening to Albert Ammons, she developed a driving boogie- played on a number of artists’ records as well. Sunnyland got

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