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Blues in the family

By

John Holmes

Those of us who became hooked on the blues in the 1960s were probably aware of
the name Johnny Otis, but without much idea of what he had done, or what he was
doing. This was because he was, at that time, taking something of a hiatus from music,
the advent of the Beatles and their ilk rendering his music completely out of fashion,

and making it impossible for him to work as a professional musician.

However, he had many other strings

to his bow, in addition to which he
and his music would return………

I must admit that for years I assumed

Johnny Otis was black, or at least had
one black parent, but that certainly
was not the case. He was born Ioannis

Veliotes, on December 28th 1921, in
Vallejo, California. As the name
suggests, his family was Greek, and
his Father, a former longshoreman,
now owned a grocery store. The area

in which they lived was
predominantly black, and the young man immersed himself in their lifestyle and
music.

Although he did not appear to come from a particularly musical family, Johnny Otis
(as he renamed himself) was something of a prodigy, being proficient on drums,
vibes, guitar, piano, as a record producer, and a songwriter, but his first love was the

drums, at which he was heavily influenced by Philly Joe Jones, who he saw playing
with the Count Basie Band in 1939. Apart from christening himself Johnny Otis, over
the years he was also known as ‘The Duke Ellington of Watts’, ‘The Reverend Hand
Jive’, and ‘The Godfather of Rhythm and Blues’.

His younger brother, Nicholas, took rather a different career path, and eventually
became Ambassador to Egypt!

By his late teens Johnny was drummer with the Count Otis Mathews West Oakland
House Rockers. In 1943 he was working a residency in Nebraska, where he was
spotted by Jimmy Witherspoon and Nat King Cole, who suggested that he relocate

to Los Angeles, in order to further his career. He took their advice, and within a couple
of years was leading his own 16 piece band, which was so well thought of that he
had such names as Miles Davis and Charlie Parker sitting in with him.