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album availability, apart from the excellent “Cold Day In Hell” (1976). The title of that album
reflects the state of mind Otis was in at that time - a particularly down period of his life in a
personal (and to an extent professional) sense.

1975 saw Otis, in the company of Jimmy Dawkins,
Little Brother Montgomery and Big Joe Williams, in
Japan, where they were very enthusiastically
received. Performances by Otis on July 20 and 29
were recorded, although once again release on cd
was delayed until 1995, on the Delmark label. Otis
and his three person band, are well on form, and
treat us to a tour de force of Chicago blues, with
Kenny Burrell’s ‘Chitlin’ Con Carne’ thrown in for
good measure!

The Wise Fools Pub, on Chicago’s North Side, was
very popular with blues musicians, featuring four
nights of live blues every week, and Otis was a
regular performer. So where better to broadcast a
live show on the radio, with his usual band, plus a
brass section sitting in on five of the twelve songs.
The show should have been released on LP at the
time, but it took until 2005 for Delmark to be able to
put it out.

In 1977, whilst on tour in Europe, Otis was reunited
with his earlier Vanguard producer, Sam Charters,
and used his touring band to record the album “Troubles, Troubles” for Sonet Records.

It was reissued in 1991, titled “Lost In The Blues”, with the addition of the keyboards that Otis
always felt should have been included in the first place. The album is unusual, in that it doesn’t
feature any of the songs most associated with him, but simply a straight ahead delivery of Chicago
blues covers.

October 1977 saw a live album recorded in Nancy, France, with his touring band, but once again
it remained unreleased for years, eventually appearing on cd in 1993 as “Live In Europe”.

Ironically, in the mid seventies, Downbeat magazine twice voted Otis as an ‘artist deserving
wider recognition’, when he had been making music professionally for twenty years!

The early 1980s saw Otis away from the scene for a few years, with personal problems, but he
reappeared midway through the decade, was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984, and
the following year cut another live album, at The San Francisco Blues Festival. It was issued on
Blind Pig Records under the title “Tops”, and then leased to Demon Records in the UK. Once
again it is a fine album of Otis on form and on fire.

The following year he was back in Japan, a country that became very dear to his heart, where a
live concert, backed by a local band, was recorded, although it remained in the can until 1995.

In fact, so keen was he on Japan and the Japanese people that he chose his second wife, Masaki,
there. For the rest of his life she was a wonderful support for him both personally and
professionally.

He appeared at the 1986 Montreux Jazz Festival, and in 2006 a dvd/cd was issued of the show,
including both Eric Clapton and Luther Allison guesting.