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Revision as of 18:20, 14 March 2022 by Brickleym (talk | contribs) (Added date and location of Mr. Spann's passing.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Pervis Spann | |
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| Born | (1932-08-16) August 16, 1932 (age 92) Itta Bena, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | Error: Need valid birth date (second date): year, month, day |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1959–2000 |
Pervis Spann (born August 16, 1932) is an American former broadcaster, music promoter and radio personality. Spann has been influential in the development of blues music in Chicago, Illinois. Spann was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012.
Life and career
Pervis Spann was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. During his teenage years, he cared for his family by picking cotton and managing a local movie theater, The Dixie Theater after his mother could no longer do that because she suffered a stroke. Spann, his sister and mother moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1949. Shortly after moving to Michigan, Spann left to work in Gary, Indiana, and spent a time in the forces in the Korean War, before returning to live in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked in a steel mill, drove a taxi, and repaired television sets.
Under the G.I. Bill, Spann attended the Midwestern Broadcasting School, before starting work on WOPA radio in 1959. Spann organized his first concert, featuring B.B. King and Junior Parker, in 1960. Three years later, when Leonard and Phil Chess launched WVON, Spann was given a regular late-night blues slot, and won attention with an 87-hour "sleepless sit-in" on the station to raise money for Martin Luther King Jr. In 1962, at a show at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Penn became the first person to refer to Aretha Franklin as "the Queen of Soul".
During the 1960s, Spann managed the careers of leading blues and soul performers, including B.B. King, and claimed to have a role in discovering the Jackson 5 and Chaka Khan. Spann co-owned several clubs, including the Burning Spear. After WVON was sold in 1975, Spann helped set up a new blues and gospel-oriented station, WXOL, on the same frequency in 1979; it became WVON again in 1983 and his daughter Melody Spann-Cooper runs it now as a talk show station. Spann continued to promote blues festivals, and also ran station WXSS in Memphis, Tennessee, during the 1980s.
In 1991, Spann ran for mayor of Chicago as a Republican, but lost in the primary to George Gottlieb.
On March 14, 2022, Mr. Spann passed away at age 89 from complications of Alzheimer's disease at his South Side Chicago home.
References
- ^ Giles Oakley (1997). The Devil's Music. Da Capo Press. p. 230/1. ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
- "Living Blues #218 April/May 2012". p. 6.
{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires|magazine=(help) - ^ Blues Hall of Fame: Pervis Spann Archived August 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed February 21, 2012.
- ^ "Pervis Spann Biography". TheHistoryMakers.com. November 13, 2018.
- "'Respect' Movie vs. the True Story of Aretha Franklin's Life". HistoryvsHollywood.com.
- ^ neonadmin. "Pervis Spann". Blues Foundation. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
- "Low turnout predictions cloud city mayoral race", Chicago Tribune. February 26, 1991. pp. 1, 8.
- "Candidates want turnout, but the reasons why vary", Chicago Tribune. February 26, 1991. Section 2, p. 7.
- "Citywide Results", Chicago Tribune. February 28, 1991. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
External links
- David Whiteis, "Not So Smooth Operator", Chicago Reader, January 18, 2001.