The Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Johnny Otis (vocals, vibraphone, drums); Devonia Williams (vocals, piano); Jimmy Rushing, Redd Lyte, The Robins, Little Esther, Junior Ryder, Mel Walker, The Bluenotes, Marilyn Scott, Linda Hopkins (vocals); Bernie Cobbs, Pete Lewis (guitar); Walter Henry (alto & baritone saxophones); James Von Streeter, Lorenzo Holden, Big Jay McNeely (tenor saxophone); Bobby McNeely (baritone saxophone); Don Johnson, Lee Graves, John Anderson (trumpets); George Washington (trombone); Bill Doggett (piano); Curtis Counce, Mario DeLagarde (bass); Leard Bell (drums).

Producers include: Ralph Bass.

Compilation producers: Orrin Keepnews, Billy Vera.

Recorded between 1949 and 1951. Includes liner notes by Billy Vera.

Digitally remastered by Paul Reid III.

Though known primarily to rock and roll fans for the timeless "Willie & the Hand Jive," Johnny Otis was actually much more than a one-hit wonder. A jazz and jump-blues drummer of high renown; a bandleader who melted urban blues, roughhouse R&B, and jazz into a single potent concoction; and a label operator/talent scout of near Wexlerian proportions, Otis was a huge figure on L.A.'s post-war urban music scene.

Spanning roughly 1949-51, THE COMPLETE SAVOY RECORDINGS documents the early stages of the Otis juggernaut (more than a decade before "Hand Jive"), roughing up smokey small combo jazz and blues tracks with a gritty rhythmic friction that foreshadows rock like a sophisticated version of Ike Turner's Sun sides. And he ruled the R&B charts of the day with that style, with 10 Top-10 hits in 1950 alone. Otis Juxtaposes the harmonizing groove of the Robins with Pete Lewis's stinging guitar on "If It's So," sets Little Esther's horny-teenager longings over his own Hamptonian vibes on "Double Crossing Blues," and orchestrates the lo-fi theater of drunken preachers and rock & rolling newlyweds on "Wedding Boogie." The previously unavailable tracks--mostly from 1951--are high on mid-tempo, downtrodden blues concision, low on swing and distortion.