Jazz pianist and vocalist. He began playing professionally for USO shows during WWII. In the ‘50s and ‘60s he performed locally at Jones Cocktail Lounge, and the Club Astoria on Edmondson Avenue. Spears also sat in with Tracy McCleary’s Royal Men of Rhythm at the Royal Theater and traveled to New York where he played behind Lionel Hampton.
He continued entertaining as a solo artist throughout the ‘80s at local venues such as the Society Hill Hotel Grille, Rusty Scupper, Phillips Harborplace, and the Belvedere Hotel’s 13th Floor… As house pianist at the Society Hill during the ‘80s the venue was perennially voted Best Piano Bar in Baltimore magazine’s readers polls.
