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29 The commercial success of “Harlem Nocturne” launched a new era for Johnny Otis. His band was selected to back up the tremendously popular vocal group the Ink Spots on their 1947 national tour. Legendary tap dancers Cholly Atkins and Honi Coles also appeared on the bill. Atkins especially appreciated the Otis band’s attentiveness to his particular needs as a dancer. In his autobiography , Atkins remembered that the show was top-notch and that Johnny Otis was “an adorable person.”1 The Ink Spots performed in old movie theaters, and it was a special treat for Otis to hear his band’s music resonate against the high ceilings and the width and breadth of those big halls after playing mostly in cramped nightclubs. Like many couples, Johnny and Phyllis postponed having children during the war. They had been together six years before their first daughter, Janice, was born. The demands of life on the road in the music business interfered with planning a family. Phyllis complained that Johnny often seemed distracted with work concerns and did not really listen to her when she raised the issue of when they would start their family. It had become such a sore subject between them that they ceased talking about it. Shortly before the start of the Ink Spots tour, however, the subject came up again in a conversation. They were in New York, staying at the Hotel Theresa, in Harlem, while Johnny and his band performed an engagement at the Apollo Theatre. He sat up late at night, copying music in the dim light provided by a lamp lit with an orange bulb. Johnny wondered if he should go down to the front desk to get a brighter lightbulb when he realized Phyllis had Two DOUBLE CROSSING BLUES said something about going back to San Francisco to be with her mother for a few months. Noting that Phyllis’s mother had not been sick, Johnny asked why they would be spending time with her. Exasperated, Phyllis replied, “I’m talking about having a baby. Do you mean you haven’t understood what I’ve been telling you all these weeks?”2 Not too long after that, Johnny’s band started its tour with the Ink Spots. Phyllis had already boarded a train for California so that her mother could help her with the pregnancy and impending birth of the baby. By the time her train had reached Omaha, however, Phyllis realized that she was about to give birth. She walked into the station and asked a porter to phone Preston Love’s mother, Mexie Love, and ask her for help. Mexie Love drove Phyllis to the hospital. Phyllis remained in labor for nearly two days. By coincidence, however, the Ink Spots tour arrived in Omaha at precisely that time, enabling Johnny to be present when Janice was born.3 At the end of the tour, the Johnny Otis Orchestra came back to its base in Los Angeles, where it performed frequently at the annual Cavalcade of Jazz concerts at Wrigley Field. The Cavalcade lineup included the best big bands of the day and attracted large audiences. Otis especially liked the music of Machito and his Afro-Cubans because of their use of different kinds of percussive instruments. He started employing conga players on many of his recordings because of these encounters with Machito. In 1951, the Otis ensemble recorded “Mambo Boogie” on the Savoy label, featuring the percussive talents of Gaucho Vaharandes, an Afro-Jukla Indian from Brazil. Soon, however, the financial crisis that impacted all of the big bands in the late 1940s compelled Otis to scale down his orchestra to a small rhythm and blues combo. He enjoyed greater success with this format than with his big band, scoring hit after hit on the Billboard charts. Following his established pattern of presenting a full show like a carnival coming to town rather than appearing as a solo act, he charted records featuring several different singers, billing his ensemble alternately as the Johnny Otis Caravan , the Johnny Otis Congregation, and the Johnny Otis Show. He supplemented these activities as a performing and recording artist by running the Barrelhouse Club in Watts on Wilmington between 107th and Santa Ana Boulevard in partnership with his old friend (and now manager) Bardu Ali. Because the club had no license for hard liquor, customers had to be content with beer and wine. Yet business boomed at the Barrelhouse. 30 Double Crossing Blues [18.118...

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