RJ Spangler

MG

Randy asked me to weigh in here. I have had the great opportunity to play many gigs with Bill, going back to an every Sunday gig back in 1985. He has indeed been on Oprah (he tells a hilarious story about that by the way) and he played piano in a group led by Don Petterson! For real, Bill played piano and Don, of course, played organ. Bill hung with Larry in NJ, while playing at Larry's Dad's Club. He worked often with Joe Dukes and Billy James and hung with Grant Green in Detroit. He's from Pittsburgh, where he came up, musically hanging with George Benson and learning from McDuff. Bill can for sure play like the Blues like Otis Spann! He spent several years in Chicago, playing and recording with Fenton Robinson & Koko Taylor on Alligator (the first white cat). He also did Jazz gigs with Henry Johnson -- Bills on two of his Impulse! CDs. He has scored over 20 porno films by the way. He's lived and worked in Osaka, Japan and speaks fluent Japanese and can instantaneously compose Blues tunes in Japanese. On piano he digs Oscar and McCoy to name a few, on organ, Larry, Don, McDuff and also Big John and the Turbinator. He also lived in LA and played gigs with Big Jay McNeely, Roy Gaines, Kid Ramos, Lynwood Slim and others. I am proud to say that we co-produced many CDs together: working with artists like Johnnie Bassett, Alberta Adams, Joe Weaver and Bill's "Blues" CD on the Dutch Black Magic label. He sings a lot on that one. Bill has a CD in the can with Peter Bernstein. Oh yeah, I am bringing him to Detroit from Maryland over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. He has two nights at Cliff Bells (thanks Randy) and he'll play my birthday party on the 26th. Should be fun! RJ, Detroit www.myspace.com/rjspangler www.spanglerbluesproductions.com