Johnny Otis: The Complete Savoy Recordings (Savoy Jazz)
Jeff Calvin, Blues Revue, April 2000
THIS THREE-CD set, which spans the years 1945 to 1951, marks Johnny Otis not just as a great bandleader and prescient talent finder, but as someone instrumental in the creation what we call Rhythm and Blues. Melding the sophisticated harmonies of the big bands with earthier rhythms, reducing the music to its three-minute essence, Otis helped usher in the postwar R&B era.
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