{"id":19980,"date":"2012-01-19T22:41:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T22:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=19980"},"modified":"2012-01-19T22:41:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T22:41:55","slug":"johnny-otis-%e2%80%98godfather-of-rhythm-and-blues%e2%80%99-dies-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=19980","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Otis, \u2018Godfather of Rhythm and Blues,\u2019 Dies at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/01\/20\/arts\/music\/johnny-otis-musician-dies-at-90.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">Johnny Otis, \u2018Godfather of Rhythm and Blues,\u2019 Dies at 90<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times<\/a><br \/>\n2012-01-19<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ihsan Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Johnny_Otis\" target=\"_blank\">Johnny Otis<\/a>, the musician, bandleader, songwriter, impresario, disc jockey and talent scout often called \u201cthe godfather of rhythm and blues,\u201d died on Tuesday at his home in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Altadena,_California\" target=\"_blank\">Altadena, Calif.<\/a> He was 90.<\/p>\n<p>His death was confirmed by his manager, Terry Gould.<\/p>\n<p>Leading a band in the late 1940s that combined the high musical standards of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Big_band\" target=\"_blank\">big-band<\/a> jazz with the raw urgency of gospel music and the blues, Mr. Otis played a key role in creating a new sound for a new audience of young urban blacks,<strong> a sound that within a few years would form the foundation of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With his uncanny ear for talent, he helped steer a long list of performers to stardom, among them <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Etta_James\" target=\"_blank\">Etta James<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jackie_Wilson\" target=\"_blank\">Jackie Wilson<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Esther_Phillips\" target=\"_blank\">Esther Phillips<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Big_Mama_Thornton\" target=\"_blank\">Big Mama Thornton<\/a> \u2014 whose hit recording of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hound_Dog_(song)\" target=\"_blank\">Hound Dog<\/a>,\u201d made in 1952, four years before <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Elvis_Presley\" target=\"_blank\">Elvis Presley\u2019s<\/a>, was produced by Mr. Otis and featured him on drums.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Despite being a mover and shaker in the world of black music, Mr. Otis was not black, a fact that as far as he was concerned was simply an accident of birth. He was immersed in African-American culture from an early age and considered himself, he said, \u201cblack by persuasion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenetically, I\u2019m pure Greek,\u201d he told <em>The San Jose Mercury News<\/em> in 1994. \u201cPsychologically, environmentally, culturally, by choice, I\u2019m a member of the black community.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire obituary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/01\/20\/arts\/music\/johnny-otis-musician-dies-at-90.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Otis, \u2018Godfather of Rhythm and Blues,\u2019 Dies at 90 New York Times 2012-01-19 Ihsan Taylor Johnny Otis, the musician, bandleader, songwriter, impresario, disc jockey and talent scout often called \u201cthe godfather of rhythm and blues,\u201d died on Tuesday at his home in Altadena, Calif. He was 90. His death was confirmed by his manager, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,1245,8,20],"tags":[9271,9270,1392,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-19980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-biography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-ihsan-taylor","tag-johnny-otis","tag-music","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}