For six decades, Johnny Otis played just about every role you can play in the music business: musician (on drums, vibes and piano), singer, songwriter, arranger, bandleader, talent maven, producer, ...

Johnny Otis, an R&B renaissance man and visionary whose passion for the blues, the back beat and racial equality helped ignite a West Coast music style in the late-1940s that made rock and roll ...

Otis, who died in 2012, started out leading a big band. Later, as a talent scout, he discovered such performers as Big Mama Thornton, Esther Phillips and Etta James. Originally broadcast in 1989. This ...

Mr. Otis reflects: Johnny Otis, the rock 'n' roll and R&B legend with deep ties to the Bay Area, and to radio, is the subject of a new book, "Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story," by ...