tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61844857664274014242024-03-14T02:32:10.240-07:00Johnny Otis - Every Beat of My HeartA Story of Rhythm & Blues and Race in AmericaBruce Schmiechenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08148812188493608928noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6184485766427401424.post-47466133855552146212012-01-19T20:49:00.001-08:002013-05-20T13:47:35.988-07:00Johnny Otis - New York Times Obituary<h1 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>‘Godfather of Rhythm and Blues,’ Dies at 9<span style="font-size: large;">0 <span style="font-size: large;">- 1/20/12</span></span><a name='more'></a></u></span></h1>
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Johnny Otis, the musician, bandleader, songwriter, impresario, disc jockey and talent scout who was often called “the godfather of rhythm and blues,” died on Tuesday at his home in Altadena, Calif. He was 90.</div>
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His death was confirmed by his manager, Terry Gould.</div>
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Leading a band in the late 1940s that combined the high musical standards of big band jazz with the raw urgency of gospel music and the blues, <a href="http://www.johnnyotisworld.com/" title="The Johnny Otis Web site.">Mr. Otis</a> played an important role in creating a new sound for a new audience of young urban blacks. Within a few years it would form the foundation of rock ’n’ roll.</div>
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With a keen ear for talent, he helped steer a long list of performers to stardom, among them Etta James, Jackie Wilson, Esther Phillips and Big Mama Thornton — whose hit recording of “Hound Dog,” made in 1952, four years before Elvis Presley’s, was produced by Mr. Otis and featured him on drums.</div>
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At Mr. Otis’s induction into the <a href="http://rockhall.com/inductees/johnny-otis/" title="Johnny Otis in the Hall of Fame.">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</a> in 1994, Ms. James referred to him as her “guru.” (He received similar honors from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and the Blues Foundation.) </div>
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Mr. Otis was also a political activist, a preacher, an artist, an author and even, late in life, an organic farmer. But it was in music that he left his most lasting mark.</div>
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Despite being a mover and shaker in the world of black music, Mr. Otis was not black, which as far as he was concerned was simply an accident of birth. He was immersed in African-American culture from an early age and said he considered himself “black by persuasion.”</div>
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“Genetically, I’m pure Greek,” he told The San Jose Mercury News in 1994. “Psychologically, environmentally, culturally, by choice, I’m a member of the black community.”</div>
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As a musician (he played piano and vibraphone in addition to drums) Mr. Otis can be heard on Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love,” Charles Brown’s “Drifting Blues” and other seminal rhythm and blues records, as well as on jazz recordings by Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet. As a bandleader and occasional vocalist, he had a string of rhythm and blues hits in the early 1950s and a Top 10 pop hit in 1958 with his composition “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEeeGMpM_Nk" title="A performance from YouTube.">Willie and the Hand Jive</a>,” later covered <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuoj4eyCMWo&feature=related" title="The Clapton version.">by Eric Clapton</a> and others. His many other compositions included “Every Beat of My Heart,” a Top 10 hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1961.</div>
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As a disc jockey (he was on the radio for decades starting in the 1950s and had his own Los Angeles <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0mIFzCaOko" title="One of the shows.">television show</a> from 1954 to 1961) he helped bring black vernacular music into the American mainstream.</div>
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Johnny Otis was born John Alexander Veliotes (some sources give his first name as Ioannis) on Dec. 28, 1921, in Vallejo, Calif., the son of Greek immigrants who ran a grocery. He grew up in a predominantly black area of Berkeley. Mr. Otis began his career as a drummer in 1939. In 1945 he formed a 16-piece band and recorded his first hit, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bYPnfXXUp4" title="Audio from YouTube of the song.">Harlem Nocturne</a>.”</div>
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As big bands fell out of fashion, Mr. Otis stripped the ensemble down to just a few horns and a rhythm section and stepped to the forefront of the emerging rhythm and blues scene. In 1948 he and a partner opened a nightclub, the Barrelhouse, in the Watts section of Los Angeles.</div>
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From 1950 to 1952 Mr. Otis had 15 singles on Billboard’s rhythm and blues Top 40, including “Double Crossing Blues,” which was No. 1 for nine weeks. On the strength of that success he crisscrossed the country with his California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, featuring singers like Ms. Phillips, billed as Little Esther — whom he had discovered at a talent contest at his nightclub — and Hank Ballard, who a decade later would record the original version of “The Twist,” the song that ushered in a national dance craze.</div>
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Around this time Mr. Otis became a D.J. on the Los Angeles-area radio station KFOX. He was an immediate success, and soon had his own local television show as well. He had a weekly program on the Pacifica Radio Network in California from the 1970s until 2005.</div>
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Hundreds of Mr. Otis’s radio and television shows are archived at Indiana University. In addition, he is the subject of a coming documentary film, “Every Beat of My Heart: The Johnny Otis Story,” directed by Bruce Schmiechen, and a biography, “Midnight at the Barrelhouse,” by George Lipsitz, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2010.</div>
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While he never stopped making music as long as his health allowed, Mr. Otis focused much of his attention in the 1960s on politics and the civil rights movement. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the California State Assembly and served on the staff of <a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000592" title="Mervyn M. Dymally Congressional listing.">Mervyn M. Dymally</a>, a Democratic assemblyman who later became a United States representative and California’s first black lieutenant governor.</div>
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Mr. Otis’s first book, “Listen to the Lambs” (1968), was largely a reflection on the political and social significance of the 1965 Watts riots.</div>
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In the mid-1970s Mr. Otis branched out further when he was ordained as a minister and opened the nondenominational Landmark Community Church in Los Angeles. While he acknowledged that some people attended just “to see what Reverend Hand Jive was talking about,” he took his position seriously and in his decade as pastor was involved in charitable work including feeding the homeless.</div>
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In the early 1990s he moved to Sebastopol, an agricultural town in northern California, and became an organic farmer, a career detour that he said was motivated by his concern for the environment. For several years he made and sold his own brand of apple juice in a store he opened to sell the produce he grew with his son Nick. The store doubled as a nightclub where Mr. Otis and his band performed.</div>
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Later that decade he published three more books: “Upside Your Head!: Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue” (1993), a memoir of his musical life; “Colors and Chords” (1995), a collection of his paintings, sculptures, wood carvings and cartoons (his interest in art had begun when he started sketching cartoons on his tour bus in the 1950s to amuse his band); and “Red Beans & Rice and Other Rock ’n’ Roll Recipes” (1997), a cookbook.</div>
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Mr. Otis continued to record and perform into the 21st century. His bands often included family members: his son John Jr., known as Shuggie, is a celebrated guitarist who played with him for many years, and Nick was his longtime drummer. Two grandsons, Lucky and Eric Otis, also played guitar with him.</div>
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In addition to his sons, he is survived by his wife of 70 years, the former Phyllis Walker; two daughters, Janice Johnson and Laura Johnson; nine grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild.</div>
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Long after he was a force on the rhythm and blues charts, Mr. Otis was a familiar presence at blues and even jazz festivals. What people wanted to call his music, he said, was of no concern to him.</div>
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“Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it’s all African-American music,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle in 1993. “The music isn’t just the notes, it’s the culture — the way Grandma cooked, the way Grandpa told stories, the way the kids walked and talked.”</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Peter Keepnews contributed reporting. </i></span></div>
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Bruce Schmiechenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08148812188493608928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6184485766427401424.post-62251178695649548892011-03-20T15:02:00.000-07:002012-01-19T20:58:16.731-08:00<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><img border="0" height="292" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f8gxIM2q0HM/TYZ4_r5ZFmI/AAAAAAAAAB0/eZjL-SF11_o/s400/CtOtis.jpg" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f8gxIM2q0HM/TYZ4_r5ZFmI/AAAAAAAAAB0/eZjL-SF11_o/s1600/CtOtis.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Johnny Otis, with the West Oakland HouseRockers, circa 1939</span></a></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> - the documentary currently in post-production - is a personal and musical biography of Johnny Otis, the musician, bandleader, producer and songwriter who is often called the Godfather of Rhythm & Blues. But it is more than the biography of one man, just as the story of R&B is about much more than music. Johnny's odyssey through the world of African-American music in the 20th Century is a window into arenas of race and culture that have defined and transformed contemporary America - and, in turn, have touched the whole world. </span></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Johnny Otis' perspective on music and race in America is unique. A leading figure in the evolution of post-WWII black music, Johnny's skin is white. Born John Veliotis, the son of Greek immigrants, he grew up above his father's small grocery store in the heart of Berkeley California's African-American community.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><b>"From Day 1 my environment and my playmates were black. I didn't make a division and I didn't realize that America would try to divide us. To me it was the preferred culture that I've never strayed from." </b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Johnny's childhood identity took on an added dimension as he entered the world of jazz and blues, playing in and leading black bands. Immersed in black music, he became known for his own hit recordings (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i>Harlem Nocturne, Willie and the Hand Jive</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">), songwriting (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i>Every Beat of My Heart</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">) - and for discovering such greats of the Rhythm and Blues era as Etta James, Esther Phillips, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John and Big Mama Thornton (with whom he produced the original </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i>Hound Dog</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">"</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Often called the Godfather of Rhythm and Blues, Johnny began his musical career in an Oakland blues band. By the mid-forties he had one of the top big bands on Central Avenue, L.A.’s jazz mecca and cut the classic <i style="font-style: italic;">Harlem Nocturne. </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">His bands toured the country from the Fillmore to the Apollo to the Deep South. By the late forties, along with other pioneers of early Rhythm & Blues, he led a movement to break down the increasingly costly big bands into smaller combos, evolving a more blues-based sound. His Barrel House Club in L.A. became the first venue dedicated exclusively to the emerging Rhythm and Blues style - a blend of electric guitars, honking sax, harder rhythms and singers who brought a gospel feel to secular music. These sounds, steeped in black traditions, were the roots of a global revolution in popular music, eventually giving birth to Rock & Roll and Soul Music.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Johnny Otis has always been a complex and articulate character - provocative, profane, funny, wise and even outrageous - like the best of R&B. Johnny's story centers on the paradox that lies at the heart of R&B. The music has a universal appeal that transcended race, yet the reality of race in America is fundamental to its history and legacy. The music that America claims as it's own was created in the midst of ferocious social rejection. A major chapter in this drama was the daily life of a touring band in the era of segregation , as musicians traveled by bus from the “chitlin’ circuit" to elegant urban venues.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">"Our bus pulled up to get gas somewhere in Mississippi and Little Esther, who was no more than 15, got off to go to the bathroom and a white guy comes up and puts a gun in my belly and screams, Get that black b-i-t-c-h out of the white lady's room… And these things occurred with regularity. I had to ask myself, good Lord, what did black people ever do to be despised so…?""</span></b></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Through those years Johnny created a “cartoon gazette” for his band - sketches that evoke life on the road – the friendships and rivalries, the humor, the ever-present bigotry, and the ironies of white America’s ultimate embrace of black music. Those cartoons became the foundation for a lifelong foray into the visual arts - painting, sculpture and satirical drawings done with the improvisation, wit and pathos of jazz and blues.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">These powerful images - many of which were published in his visual art book, "Colors and Chords" - are a surrealistic counterpoint to Johnny’s anecdotes and provide deeper insight into his experience and his view of American life Visual sequences in the film are also drawn from Johnny's extensive personal collection of vintage photos. And musical performances are interwoven as a rhythmic and emotional element of the story. Early greats with whom Johnny has recorded - including Charles Brown, Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, and protégé's Esther Phillips and Etta James - will appear in archival and performance footage ("soundies" from the 40s, Rock and Roll and R&B shows from the fifties, a vintage "Barrelhouse Reunion" at the height of the “blues revival” of the 1960s, and his legendary revue performing at the Monterey Jazz Festival.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">To tell Johnny's story, the documentary moves back and forth between past and present. We follow Johnny as he broadcasted weekly on Berkeley's KPFA - freeform live radio and talk, featuring the best of classic jazz, R&B and soul music. We join his college class, as Johnny holds forth in an East Bay dance club teaching the history of African American music. The lively, popular class featured members of his band and a wide range of guest artists. Johnny also continued an active recording schedule at his rural Sebastopol studio, in addition to being an avid painter, organic farmer, cook, cartoonist, author, bird breeder and fisherman. We hear from folks who've known and worked with Johnny throughout the years - family and old friends, including such legendary figures as Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto. And we'll see his band at more recent gigs, including their headlining the San Francisco Blues Festival.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Through the years Johnny's been a bandleader, singer, songwriter, producer, percussionist, painter, sculptor - as well as a preacher and a political activist - but his passion remained African-American music in all of its magnificent variety. This passion and the journey on which it has taken Johnny are at the center of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><b>“</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">Every Beat of My Heart”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><b>- </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">from the Swing Era, to R&B and the rise of Rock and Soul - more than half a century of music reflected through the prism of a singular life. The characters are colorful, but the most compelling element in the film is the music itself. It is not a soundtrack but an intrinsic part of the storytelling – a moving voice that stirred the soul of Johnny Veliotis, a Greek-American youth, seven decades ago, much as it has touched successive generations over the years and throughout the world</span></div></div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Bruce Schmiechenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08148812188493608928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6184485766427401424.post-48410053494563736722011-03-20T06:27:00.000-07:002012-01-21T14:19:58.767-08:00Dave Alvin on Johnny Otis, Big Joe Turner & West Coast Blues<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Here's an interview we did for the "Every Beat..." doc with the great musician/songwriter Dave Alvin - who grew up in the LA area and has been a Johnny Otis fan since he was a teenager.</div><br />
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</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Check out Dave's tribute to Big Joe Turner and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">the Central Avenue R&B scene:<b><i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026M1TQY/ref=dm_dp_trk6">Boss of the Blues</a> </i></b> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ALw-mM9z2JU/TaQ_JBy26nI/AAAAAAAAAJE/NvTlzAntJyU/s1600/DaveAlvin-Emailheader-Guiltywomen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ALw-mM9z2JU/TaQ_JBy26nI/AAAAAAAAAJE/NvTlzAntJyU/s320/DaveAlvin-Emailheader-Guiltywomen.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">- on the album, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">"Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women" -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Alvin-Guilty-Women/dp/B0026M1TDM/ref=tmm_msc_title_0">available HERE</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://davealvin.net/video.html">More Dave...HERE. </a></span></div>Bruce Schmiechenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08148812188493608928noreply@blogger.com