Johnny Otis That's Your Last Boogie

This release catches Johnny Otis just as he made the switch from big band jazz-styled pieces to the pivotal R&B-based sound that would carry him into the rock & roll years. Everything here is from his first year with Savoy Records, but unfortunately doesn't include his biggest hits from that year with the label ("Double Crossing Blues," "Mistrustin' Blues," "Cupid's Boogie"). While this is an extremely satisfying disc, those omissions (each went to number one on the R&B charts) make this a poor choice for a first glimpse at this versatile and innovative musician.

Rare 1970 album produced by Johnny Otis featuring the stinging guitar of his son Shuggie – with two previously unissued bonus tracks Bluesman Slim Green made very few records in a career that started in 1948 and ended with this LP in 1970. Born Norman G. Green in Bryant, Texas in 1920, he grew up in Oklahoma and played guitar in Las Vegas before settling in Los Angeles in the late 1940s. He made his first records in 1948 for local labels. Listening to them suggests a player full of country influences, updating them for a modern urban audience. He reappeared a decade later in a group called the Cats From Fresno, who made two singles for Johnny Otis’ Dig label, a contact he renewed in the late 60s. Johnny Otis, a pioneer of post-war R&B, had scored hits as a producer and recording artist as well as being a renowned talent-spotter. Having dropped out of sight for much of the 1960s, he returned to the studio in the latter part of the decade and released a series of records for the Kent label, distinguished by the guitar playing of his teenage son Shuggie.

John Littlejohn's stunning mastery of the slide guitar somehow never launched him into the major leagues of bluesdom. Only on a handful of occasions was the Chicago veteran's vicious bottleneck attack captured effectively on wax, but anyone who experienced one of his late-night sessions as a special musical guest on the Windy City circuit will never forget the crashing passion in his delivery…

Johnny Otis - Rhythm & Blues Caravan: The Complete Savoy Recordings (1999) {3CD Set, Atlantic–Savoy 92859-2 rec 1949-1952}
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© 1949-52, 1999 Atlantic / Savoy Jazz | 92859-2
Jazz / Blues / Early R&B / Jump Blues

A deluxe three-disc set summing up Otis' pre-Hand Jive days as an R&B bandleader of some renown who employed various singers on a number of singles for the Savoy label. The recording debuts of the Robins, Little Esther Phillips, Mel Walker, guitarist Pete Lewis, and Linda Hopkins are all here, and you hear how Otis kept his ear to the ground, changing and moving to keep pace with a big-band scene that was slowly dying out, while making some marvelous DIY records along the way. Incredible notes from Billy Vera make this a box set well worth having in the collection.

Culled from four albums, except for one previously unreleased track, Shuggie's Boogie: Shuggie Otis Plays the Blues is a tour de force made all the more remarkable because the prodigy who produced it was so young. In fact, Shuggie Otis recalls during a boyish spoken intro in "Shuggie's Boogie" how he used to wear dark glasses and paint on a mustache to look older than his 14 or 15 years when he played in bars in the band of his legendary father Johnny Otis. During the same intro he effortlessly throws off guitar impersonations of T-Bone Walker, B.B. King and Elmore James. This compilation has a few rousing, up-tempo numbers, but the highlights are the slow, soulful tunes. One unfortunate omission is the seven-minute "Oxford Gray" from his 1970 album Here Comes Shuggie Otis.

1971's Here Comes Shuggie Otis was the debut album by the guitarist and songwriter, issued by Columbia, when Shuggie was only 18. Produced and arranged by his father, R&B legend Johnny Otis, the set features nine original cuts co-written by the pair, and in some cases others, and one written by Johnny with Dan Aldrich. The album is evenly divided between vocal tunes and instrumentals…

These recordings with the exception of tracks 8, 9, 10, and 11 were originally released on LP in 1983 by Murray Brothers Records under the title "Johnny Dyer and the L.A. Jukes". Untill now, they have never been available on compact disc. This reissue is Johnny's debut album. Produced by Rod Piazza. "Breezy jump rhythms, clear-toned guitar solos, playful breaks and novelty melody lines…is pure West Coast, as are Dyer's smooth vocals." "Characteristic style and a cut-loose approach to playing."