biography
OTIS RUSH, a legendary Chicago Blues guitarist and vocalist, revolutionized the genre with his passionate performances, pioneering the "West Side Sound" and inspiring generations of musicians, including Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Revered by blues and rock musicians alike, legendary guitarist/vocalist Otis Rush is perhaps the most intense, soulful bluesman of his era. Since the 1950s when he had his first chart-topping hit on Cobra Records “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” Rush has gone on to influence musicians such as Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Peter Green, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Luther Allison, and Michael Bloomfield. Rush, along with Buddy Guy and Magic Sam, pioneered the “West Side Sound,” a minor-key sound characterized by impassioned gospel-tinged vocals and bursts of arpeggio guitar riffs. His unique approach is offset by his left-handed technique – playing the guitar upside down and backwards: Rush bends the strings downward for dramatic effect.
Born in Philadelphia, Mississippi in *1934, Rush is a self-taught musician who began playing the guitar at the age of eight. Moving to Chicago in 1949, he was introduced to the more urban sounds of the blues. He made the decision to become a performer after he saw Muddy Waters for the first time. Rush’s impact on the local scene was immediate. His sophisticated approach to the blues won the admiration of his peers who sought to emulate his playing. Waters himself, became a devotee. Citing Otis as one of the deepest of deep bluesmen, he commented to Robert Palmer in Deep Blues, “he’s so good, man.”
Otis recorded other classic sides for Cobra during the label’s brief history. From 1956 to ’58, he wrote and recorded the minor-key masterpiece “Double Trouble,” the devastating “My Love Will Never Die,” the insightful “Three Times A Fool,” the passionate “Keep On Loving Me Baby,” and the Earl Hooker inspired “All Your Love (I Miss Loving).” Produced by Willie Dixon, Rush recorded on the Chicago’s west side with a combo featuring Ike Turner on guitar, Big Walter Horton and Little Walter on harmonica, and Little Brother Montgomery on piano. Eli Toscano, Cobra’s co-owner was a gambler and lost the label in 1959.
Otis went on to record for Chess and Duke. Aside from releasing the classic “So Many Roads, So Many Trains” for Chess and “Homework” for Duke, the labels chose not to mine his enormous talent. They kept his career in limbo until the mid-sixties, when he participated in sessions for Vanguard Records on the popular anthology “Chicago – The Blues Today!” Under the auspices of Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites, Otis recorded the underrated album “Mourning In The Morning” in 1969 with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. The track “Weep What You Sow” with its hair-raising emotional intensity is a cornerstone of modern Chicago blues.
As blues-derived rock dominated the charts throughout the 70s and 80s, Rush toured throughout the world and at home, but went shamefully under-recorded. In 1971 he recorded the gem “Right Place, Wrong Time” for Capitol Records. Inexplicably, the album remained in the vaults until it was picked up five years later by the tiny Bullfrog label.
In 1994, Otis returned to the studio with a vengeance. He recorded the critically acclaimed album “Ain’t Enough Comin’ In” with producer John Porter for Mercury Records. In 1998 he recorded the Grammy-winning “Any Place I’m Going” produced by legendary Memphis producer Willie Mitchell.
Otis has appeared on albums by Peter Green and John Mayall and contributed songs to Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley and Led Zeppelin tribute albums. Two wildly popular releases “All Your Love (I Miss Loving): Live At the Wise Fools Pub,” recorded in 1976 and the CD/DVD set “Otis Rush And Friends: Live At Montreux 1986,” with Eric Clapton and Luther Allison revisit stunning moments in blues history. Throughout a career lasting six decades, Otis Rush remains the quintessential bluesman.
Written by Beverly Zeldin-Palmer
*The exact year of Rush’s birth has been quoted differently, sometimes as early as 1932 and as late as 1935. Due to the lack of adequate public records for African Americans born in the south, no actual birth certificate has ever been located. His passport and other current documents list his year of birth as 1934 and that is used for reference herein.
