bluesboy Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Bandleader, record producer, talent scout, label owner, nightclub impresario, disc jockey, TV variety show host, author, R&B pioneer, rock & roll star Johnny Otis passed away January 17th. Source I got to see him at San Diego State back in 1971. I got hooked on his radio shows for various Los Angeles stations back in the eighties because he had such knowledge of 1940's, '50s & '60s blues and R&B with every week being a dynamite playlist. I started taping his shows and fast forward to today, He is the Godfather of my youtube channel. I learned so much from you, Johnny Otis. Thank You Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesboy Posted January 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Here's more from the Source... "But tough times in the late 1940s forced bandleaders to pare their large ensembles back to a small handful of players — the perfect size, as it turned out, for the new styles of R&B and rock 'n' roll that were emerging. "To compensate for all the instruments we were eliminating, we had to put in some new ones, each with a fuller sound: an electric guitar, a blues guitar, a boogie piano," Otis told The Times in 1984, and "the sound changed too, into more of a cross between swing and country blues.... We ended up creating a whole new art form: a hybrid music that became known as rhythm and blues." Otis scored a signature hit of that nascent style in 1946 with the moody, saxophone-driven instrumental " Harlem Nocturne ," which was revived in 1960 by the white New Jersey rock group the Viscounts." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel2Velvet Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Sad to hear. Wow ... I thought the midnight creeper would never die. RIP, my man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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