CD Reviews

"Conversations In Blue"

David Maxwell & Otis Spann

Circumstantial

In my opinion, and without doubt the opinion of many blues lovers world-wide, Otis Spann is the first and foremost name among blues piano players. Best-known for his time spent with the Muddy Waters Band, he also often worked solo or with other musicians. His album Otis Spann Is The Blues, which resulted from a recording session Spann had done with Robert Lockwood, Jr. and St. Louis Jimmy in 1960, has been long considered a classic and was inducted into The Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1995. It is through such works that Spann has influenced countless blues pianists since, David Maxwell included.

This past year, Maxwell was approached with the idea of creating a new album based on the Otis Spann Is The Blues recording, and his response was how can you possibly improve on something like that to begin with? Instead, Maxwell took on a new approach to the project. One that delivers such satisfaction and gratitude for his ability to pay such tribute to Otis Spann. It works to perfection and comes across as a live performance by a piano master that could have taken place in a riverside levee camp, a jumping juke joint or a smoke filled blues joint on the West Side back in the day Spann ripped up the stages of Chicago.

The original idea of basing the new project on the Otis Spann Is The Blues emerged as simply a tribute to Spann’s style and music altogether. He created a new concept where he would take songs that had been recorded by Spann and bring them across either performing them solo or making them duets with the master. He did this latter approach with four songs that he carefully inserted his own piano voice alongside Otis’ original recording, calling them conversations. And they come across as if they were originally meant to be recorded this way. Think of it in the lines of the famous duet Natalie Cole recorded with a recording of her father and he you get the same idea; this time with piano as the voice. Only two tracks from the classic Otis Spann Is The Blues album appear here, “Otis In The Dark” and “Otis’s Great Northern Stomp  The first is one of the numbers Maxwell recreates with Spann, while the latter he offers Spann’s original solo take (the only number of Spann solo on the disc). The other tracks where Maxwell duets with Spann are Champion Jack Dupree’s “Walking The Blues,” “Get Your Hands Out Of My Pockets,” and “Spann And Bob,” which is actually a trio as Robert Lockwood, Jr. is also present. Besides the new duets, Maxwell performs several of Spann’s works as well as a seven of his own original pieces. The take of Cow Cow Davenport’s signature tune, “Cow Cow Boogie,” offers Maxwell providing his own little tastes as well as Spann’s to the number, and you can easily hear the influences that this song gave to Ray Charles when he wrote “Mess Around.”

Anybody who loves instrumental blues piano, whether you’re a fan or David Maxwell, Otis Spann or anyone else, will absolutely love Conversations In Blue. It rocks, it rolls, it boogies and it’s just damn fun!

Total Time: 55:32

Marie / Otis In The Dark / Transition In Blue #1 / Off The Cuff / Walking The Blues / Transition In Blue #2 / Cow Cow Boogie / David In The Dark / Otis’s Great Northern Stomp / Get Your Hands Out Of My Pockets / Twisted Tendons / Walk The Walk / Spann And Bob / Transition In Blue #3 / Take Me On Home / “Thank You, Otis”