On September 13, 1945, a 23-year-old drummer born Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes — the son of Greek immigrants, who had decided as a kid that “if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black” — led his first record date, for the small Los Angeles label Excelsior. The sixteen-piece band was absurdly well stocked for an unknown: Paul Quinichette on tenor, Bill Doggett at the piano, Henry Coker on trombone, Curtis Counce on bass, Jimmy Rushing singing the blues. Four titles were cut and one was never issued. The one that sold was an instrumental parked on a B-side, “Harlem Nocturne,” carried by the alto of a teenaged René Bloch. Earle Hagen had written it in 1939, aged 20, as a tribute to Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges; he is better remembered for whistling the theme to The Andy Griffith Show. It made Johnny Otis's name.
Johnny Otis with the Johnny Otis Show at the Long Beach Blues Festival, September 1987 — forty-two years after the Los Angeles session that made his name. (Photo: Sumori, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Sources: Johnny Otis — Wikipedia (birth name; “I would be black”; later careers) , Savoy Records Discography: 1945 — Jazz Discography Project (September 13, 1945 session personnel and titles) , “Johnny Otis” — Toppermost (the September 13, 1945 Excelsior date; the sixteen-piece band; René Bloch's solo) , Earle Hagen — Wikipedia (“Harlem Nocturne” written 1939 as a tribute to Ellington and Hodges; the Andy Griffith whistle) , “Harlem Nocturne” — Wikipedia (1939, Earle Hagen, for the Ray Noble orchestra; later recordings) , Johnny Otis, His Drums & His Orchestra — “Jimmy's 'Round the Clock Blues” / “Harlem Nocturne,” Excelsior JR 142 (Rate Your Music)
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