He was born John Veliotes to Greek immigrant parents in a mostly black neighborhood of Oakland, California. His first professional position was drumming for Count Otis Matthews' West End House Rockers, a small, local band, in 1940. He went on the road with various swing bands, including a stint behind the skins for Count Basie. In 1943, he settled in Los Angeles, where he formed his own orchestra and played at the Club Alabam on Central Avenue. By the late 1940s, he had his own club, The Barrelhouse. He also had a radio show, a chicken farming operation and an apple orchard. One of the families working on his chicken farm had a young daughter, Little Esther Phillips, who won a 1949 talent show at The Barrelhouse. This led to a contract and a long r&b career for Phillips.
In 1945, Otis was involved with two important records. One was his own band's version of "Harlem Nocturne," a pivotal event in the transition for black orchestras from swing to jump blues. The other was "Driftin' Blues" by Johnny Moore and the Three Blazers featuring Charles Brown, on which he played drums and which launched the cool blues school of postwar music.
Over the next ten years, he discovered such r&b legends as Johnny "Guitar" Watson, The Robins (one faction of whom became The Coasters), Etta James, Big Mama Thornton (that's Otis drumming on the original version of "Hound Dog"), and a host of doo-wop groups that recorded for the Mesner brothers' Aladdin label. In 1955, he founded a short-lived label called Dig Records. When that folded, he signed with Capitol, which is where he recorded his 1957 hit "Willie and the Hand Jive." He also hosted a Los Angeles television show in the 1950s which was a prestigious showcase for the biggest r&b stars of the day.
As the music of Otis and other practitioners evolved through the stages of jump through rhythm & blues to rock & roll, it came in for increasing heat from certain societal institutions. Schools, churches, and municipal governments expressed concern about the music's potential for corruption of American youth. Otis had to move his popular revues from Los Angeles proper to the El Monte Legion Stadium, a venue located in an economically tepid Mexican and black area. The move ensured him an enthusiastic audience.
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