Les Spann


Leslie Spann Jr. was an American jazz guitarist and flautist. As a sideman he recorded with Nat Adderley, Benny Bailey, Bill Coleman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Curtis Fuller, Red Garland, Benny Goodman, Sam Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Charles Mingus, Duke Pearson, Jerome Richardson, Charlie Shavers, Sonny Stitt, Billy Taylor, Randy Weston, and Ben Webster. As a leader he recorded only once, the album Gemini in 1961.

Career

Les Spann was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. From 1950 to 1957, he studied music at Tennessee State University. At the end of that time he worked with Phineas Newborn Jr. and in 1958 with Ronnell Bright. The following year, he joined a quintet in New York City led by Dizzy Gillespie, performing solos on flute and guitar and appearing on two of Gillespie's albums for Verve Records. After a year with Gillespie, he went to Europe as a member of Quincy Jones's big band. Two more albums followed, this time with Spann joining a sextet that included Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, and Harry "Sweets" Edison. He recorded with Hodges again in 1967. Around 1970, he played flute in a quartet led by the guitarist Kenny Burrell.
He died in New York City in 1989.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Bill ColemanFrom Boogie to Funk The Great Parisian Session
With Duke EllingtonSide by Side with Johnny HodgesBack to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues Paris Blues
With Dizzy GillespieThe Ebullient Mr. Gillespie Have Trumpet, Will Excite!
With Johnny HodgesA Smooth One Blue Hodge Triple Play
With Quincy JonesThe Birth of a Band! Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series, Vol. 1 1960I Dig Dancers At Basin Street East, Billy Eckstine/Quincy Jones Newport '61 The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones
With Sam JonesThe Chant Down Home
With Sonny StittThe Matadors Meet the Bull What's New!!! I Keep Comin' Back!
With othersPhineas Newborn, Jr. Plays Harold Arlen's Music from Jamaica, Phineas Newborn Jr. Abbey Is Blue, Abbey Lincoln Ben Webster and Associates, Ben Webster Big Brass, Benny Bailey That's Right!, Nat Adderley Uhuru Afrika, Randy Weston The Magnificent Trombone of Curtis Fuller, Curtis Fuller Kwamina, Billy Taylor Going to the Movies Jerome Richardson One More Time, Wild Bill Davis Solar, Red Garland The Complete Town Hall Concert, Charles Mingus Honeybuns, Duke Pearson Lock, the Fox, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis