Struggling for many years with a heroin addiction, in 1958 Hawes became the target of a federal undercover operation in Los Angeles. Hawes was arrested on heroin changes and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. With help from inside and outside the prison, Hawes submitted an official request for a presidential pardon. In August 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy granted Hawes Executive Clemency. As being released from prison, Hawes resumed playing and recording. "Spanish steps" was recorded in Paris in 1968 while Hampton Hawes was on a world tour, featuring some achingly beautiful players of Hawe's second post-prison phase with superb original compositions

Hampton Hawes - piano.
Jimmy Woode - bass.
Art Taylor - drums.

Blues enough.
Sonora.
Black Forest.
Dangerous.
Spanish steps.
My romance.