Johnny Otis
Background information
Born	Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes (Ιωάννης Αλέξανδρος Βελιώτης) (1921-12-28)December 28, 1921 Vallejo, California, U.S.
Died	January 17, 2012(2012-01-17) (aged 90) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Blues R&B rock and roll
Instruments	Piano vibraphone drums percussion vocals
Years active	1940s–2000s
Website	johnnyotisworld.com

Johnny Otis (December 28, 1921 – January 17, 2012), bornIoannis Alexandres Veliotes (Greek:Ιωάννης Αλέξανδρος Βελιώτης), was a Greek American singer, musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, talent scout, and preacher.^[1] He was a seminal influence on AmericanR&B androck and roll. He discovered numerous artists early in their careers who went on to become highly successful in their own right, includingLittle Esther Phillips,Etta James,Alan O'Day,^[2]Big Mama Thornton,Johnny Ace,Jackie Wilson,Little Willie John,Hank Ballard, andThe Robins, Sugar Pie Desanto, among many others. Otis has been called the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues".^[3]

Otis was born in Vallejo, California, to Greek immigrant parents Alexander J. Veliotes, aMare Islandlongshoreman and grocery store owner, and his wife, the former Irene Kiskakes, a painter.^[4] He had a younger sister, Dorothy, and a younger brother,Nicholas A. Veliotes, who became the U.S. Ambassador toJordan (1978–1981) andEgypt (1984–1986). Johnny grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood inBerkeley, California, where his father owned a grocery store. He became known for his choice to live his professional and personal life as a member of the African-American community.^[5][6][7] He wrote, "As a kid I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black."^[8]

On May 2, 1941, when Otis was 19, he married Phyllis Walker, an 18-year-old woman of African American and Filipino descent from Oakland, whom he had known since childhood. Despite deep and enduring objections from his mother, the young couple left California and eloped to marry inReno, Nevada, where interracial marriage was accepted at the time.^[9] They had four children: two sons,Shuggie Otis and Nicholas Otis—both of whom became musicians—and two daughters, Janice and Laura.^[10] Johnny and Phyllis also raisedLucky Otis, Shuggie's son with his first wife,Miss Mercy Fontenot ofThe GTOs.

Otis began playing drums as a teenager, having bought a set by forging his father's signature on a credit slip. Soon after, he dropped out ofBerkeley High School, in his junior year. He joined a local band, the West Oakland House Rockers,^[11] with his pianist friend "Count" Otis Matthews. By 1939, they were performing at many local functions, mostly in and aroundOakland andBerkeley, and were popular among their peers.

In the early 1940s Otis played inswing orchestras, includingLloyd Hunter's Serenaders^[12] andHarlan Leonard's Rockets.^[13] He founded his own band in 1945; they had one of the most enduring hits of the big-band era, "Harlem Nocturne", a composition byEarle Hagen. His band includedWynonie Harris,Charles Brown, andIllinois Jacquet, among others. In 1947, he andBardu Ali opened theBarrelhouse Club in theWatts district of Los Angeles. Otis reduced the size of his band and hired the singersMel Walker,Little Esther (born Esther Mae Jones and later known as Esther Phillips) and the Robins (who later became theCoasters).^[14] He discovered the teenaged Esther Jones when she won a talent show at the Barrelhouse Club. With this band, he toured extensively in the United States as the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan,^[15] and had a string of rhythm-and-blues hits through 1950.

Otis and his Orchestra played at the third annual Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 7, 1947.Woody Herman, TheValdez Orchestra, The Blenders,T-Bone Walker,Slim Gaillard,The Honeydrippers,Sarah Vaughn and theThree Blazers also performed that same day.^[16]

Otis discovered thetenor saxophonistBig Jay McNeely, who played on his up-tempo "Barrelhouse Stomp". He began recording Little Esther and Mel Walker forSavoy Records, based inNewark, New Jersey, in 1949,^[13] and also released a stream of hit records, including "Double Crossing Blues", "Mistrustin' Blues" and "Cupid's Boogie", all of which reached number 1 on theBillboard R&B chart. In 1950,Billboard selected Otis as the R&B Artist of the Year.^[17] He also began playing thevibraphone on many of his recordings.^[13]

In 1951, Otis released "Mambo Boogie", featuring congas, maracas, claves, and mambo saxophoneguajeos in a blues progression, the first R&B mambo ever recorded.^[18] Otis moved toMercury Records in 1951. He discovered the singerEtta James, who was then 13 years old, at one of his talent shows. He produced and co-wrote her first hit, "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)".

In 1952, while inHouston, Texas, Otis auditioned the singerWillie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. He produced, co-wrote, and played drums on her 1953 recording of "Hound Dog" (the first recording of the song); he and his band also provided the backup "howling" vocals.^[19] The song was co-written byJerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Otis had a legal dispute with the songwriting duo over the credits after he learned that Leiber and Stoller had revised the contractual agreement before the singerElvis Presley recorded a new version of the song, which quickly became a number 1 hit. Claiming Leiber and Stoller illegally had the original contract nullified and rewrote a new one stating that the two boys (who were both 17) were the only composers of the song, Otis sued. The judge decided the case in favor of the defendants, ruling that the first contract with Otis was null and void because they were minors when they signed it.

One of Otis's most famous compositions is the ballad "Every Beat of My Heart", first recorded by the Royals in 1952 forFederal Records.^[20][21] It was a hit forGladys Knight and the Pips in 1961. Otis also produced and played the vibraphone on "Pledging My Love", by the singerJohnny Ace, which was number 1 on theBillboard R&B chart for 10 weeks. Another successful song for Otis was "So Fine", originally recorded by the Sheiks in 1955 for Federal and a hit for theFiestas in 1959. As anartist and repertory man forKing Records, Otis discovered numerous young prospects who later became successful, includingJackie Wilson,Hank Ballard, andLittle Willie John.^[13]

Otis hosted a television show,The Johnny Otis Show, and became an influential disc jockey in Los Angeles, with a program on radio stationKFOX inLong Beach in 1955.^[22]

In 1955, Otis started his own label, Ultra Records (he changed the name to Dig after releasing five singles). He continued to perform and appeared on TV shows in Los Angeles from 1957. On the strength of their success, he signed withCapitol Records. Featuring the singerMarie Adams and with his band, now known as the Johnny Otis Show, he made a comeback, at first in the British charts with "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me" in 1957.^[23] In April 1958, he recorded his best-known song, "Willie and the Hand Jive", aclave-based vamp. It was a hit in the summer of 1958, peaking at number 9 on the U.S. Pop chart, and was Otis's only Top 10 single. The single reached number 1 on theBillboard R&B chart. Otis's success with the song was somewhat short-lived, and he briefly moved toKing Records in 1961, where he worked withJohnny "Guitar" Watson.^[13]

In 1959, Otis auditioned the Coachella Valley, California band the Renes which featured a youngAlan O'Day on vocals. Impressed, Otis recorded and produced the band performing three O'Day originals and a few covers at El Dorado Studios in Los Angeles. but the recordings were never released as most of the members of the Renes were minors.^[2]

In 1969, Otis landed a deal withColumbia Records and recorded the albumsCold Shot! and the sexually explicitSnatch and the Poontangs, both of which featured his son Shuggie and the singer Delmar "Mighty Mouth" Evans.^[24] A year later, he recorded a double live album of his band's performance at theMonterey Jazz Festival,Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey! withLittle Esther Phillips,Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson,Pee Wee Crayton,Ivory Joe Hunter, andThe Mighty Flea, among others. A portion of the performance was featured in theClint Eastwood filmPlay Misty for Me.

Live at Monterey was released in 1971 byEpic Records. Reviewing it inChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981),Robert Christgau said, "In-concert compilations are often incoherent, but the blues-style hard jive beloved of performer-turned-majordomo Otis has such formal integrity that this r&b spectacular moves smoothly for four sides. Some of the featured players are no more than Otis's hired hands, including guitaristShuggie O. But (in ascending order)Roy Milton,Big Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Little (?) Esther Phillips,Roy Brown, and Cleanhead Vinson are a cast that beats anything Richard Nader's ever put intothe Garden."^[25]

Otis toured less in the 1970s. He started the Blues Spectrum label and released a series of thirteen albums,Rhythm and Blues Oldies, which featured the 1950s R&B artistsLouis Jordan,Charles Brown,Big Joe Turner,Pee Wee Crayton,Joe Liggins,Gatemouth Moore,Roy Milton,Amos Milburn,Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, andRichard Berry, with three of those albums by Otis himself.

In the 1980s, Otis had a weekly radio show, airing Mondays from 8 to 11 p.m. on the Los Angeles radio stationKPFK, on which he played records and received as guests R&B artists such asScreamin' Jay Hawkins.^[26] Otis also recorded with his sons, Shuggie (guitar) and Nicky (drums), releasing the albumsThe New Johnny Otis Show (Alligator, 1981),Johnny Otis! Johnny Otis! (Hawk Sound, 1984) andOtisology (Kent, 1986).^[13] In the summer of 1987, Otis hosted his ownRed Beans & Rice R&B Music Festival in Los Angeles, which featured top-name acts and hosted a Southern-style red beans and rice cook-off. Otis releasedSpirit of the Black Territory Bands in 1992, for which he was nominated for a Grammy Award.^[27] He moved the festival to the city ofSan Dimas, where it ran annually in association with theLos Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation for twenty years, until 2006.^[28]

Otis and his family moved from southern California toSebastopol, California, a small apple-farming town inSonoma County. He continued his weekly radio program fromKPFK's sister stationKPFA inBerkeley, California, which aired every Saturday from 9am to noon. Otis performed across the United States and Europe well through the 1990s, headlining theSan Francisco Blues Festival in 1990 and 2000. In 1993, he opened the Johnny Otis Market^{[29][30][31][32]} in Sebastopol, a grocery/deli/cabaret where Otis and his band (now joined by his grandsons Lucky on bass and Eric on rhythm guitar) played sold-out shows^[33] every weekend until it closed its doors in 1995.^[34][35][36] He was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame and theBlues Hall of Fame in 1994.^[37] He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017.

In the 1960s, Otis entered journalism and politics. He lost an election for a seat in theCalifornia State Assembly. He then became deputy chief of staff^[38] to state Assemblyman, later,DemocraticCongressman,Mervyn M. Dymally.^[39]

Otis also founded^[40] and preached in the New Landmark Community Gospel Church,^[41] which held Sunday services inSanta Rosa, California. Landmark's worship services centered on Otis's preaching and the traditional-style performances of a vocal group and choir backed by his rhythm section and an organist.^[42] The church closed in mid-1998.^{[citation needed]}

The Johnny Otis Show, relocated fromKPFK to sister stationKPFA inBerkeley, California, where it aired on Saturday mornings. After his market in Sebastopol opened in 1994, Otis broadcast from there, with his band playing live on the air, later broadcasting from the Powerhouse Brewing Co.^[43] After Otis' retirement in late 2004, his grandson Lucky hosted the show at KPFA for two years, until its final airing in late 2006, when Otis and his wife moved back to Los Angeles.^[44]

In 1980,Frank Zappa stated in aTrouser Press interview that he adopted his trademark mustache andsoul patch because "it looked good on bluesman Johnny Otis, so I grew it."^[45]

He taught Music 15-B: Jazz, Blues and Popular Music in American Culture, a 3-unitPeralta Community College District class.^[46]

Otis died of natural causes on January 17, 2012, in theAltadena area of Los Angeles. He died three days beforeEtta James, whom he had discovered in the early 1950s.^[1] He is interred with his wife at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California, US.^[47]

• Official website
• Johnny Otis atAllMusic
• JohnnyOtis.com
• Johnny Otis atFind a Grave

• 1921 births
• 2012 deaths
• American blues drummers
• American blues singers
• American blues pianists
• American male pianists
• American people of Greek descent
• King Records artists
• People from Sebastopol, California
• Musicians from Vallejo, California
• Savoy Records artists
• Modern Records artists
• Kent Records artists
• Duke Records artists
• Okeh Records artists
• Alligator Records artists
• West Coast blues musicians
• Singers from California
• The Midnighters members
• 20th-century American male singers
• 20th-century American singers
• 21st-century American male singers
• 21st-century American singers
• People from Altadena, California
• 20th-century American male musicians
• 20th-century American people of Greek descent

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