MUSIC REVIEW : Otis Kicks Up His Own Storm in R&B; Show

There’s big fun to be had at Elario’s over the next three nights as the Johnny Otis Show continues its first-time engagement at the jazz venue.

On Wednesday night, Otis and his 11-piece R&B; band achieved the improbable by heating a crowd of midweek rain-dodgers to the point of dancing in the tiny spaces between the cocktail tables. It was a sight one doesn’t expect to see at the well-appointed lounge, which looks down on La Jolla Shores from the top floor of the Summer House Inn. But the 69-year-old Otis seemed to take the lively response in stride.

The man who played a central role in the development of ‘50s rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll, and who as a talent scout and bandleader introduced to the world such talents as Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Hank Ballard, Esther Phillips, Big Mama Thornton, and the group that would become the Coasters, has a right to expect success.

Today, the Greek-American (he was born John Veliotes in Vallejo, Calif., but “grew up black” in a Berkeley ghetto) commands the respect of an elder statesman, at least among pop cognoscenti. And if his entrepreneurial authority no longer threatens the pop charts as it did four decades ago, Otis’ skill at assembling a crack R&B; band remains deft.

It should. Otis wrote the book on the subject. A big-band drummer in the ‘40s, Otis was one of the first to pare the typical swing band down to the more manageable size that became a model for the horn-section R&B; bands of the ‘50s and ‘60s. It is a structure he still uses.

The lineup Otis brought to Elario’s features a male (Jackie Payne) and a female (Ramona) vocalist, his nephew Brad Pie on guitar, his son Nicky on drums, and a six-piece horn crew that includes Ronald Wilson on baritone sax and clarinet, the venerable Clifford Solomon on alto sax, and musical director Larry Douglas on fluegelhorn and trumpet.

Most of the musicians got at least one opportunity to solo, and as individual personalities emerged, they contributed to a generally amiable mood that grew more festive as the show progressed.

Like the early rhythm and blues revues, Otis’ current show is an anthology of African-American musical styles. Otis himself sits at the piano for most of the evening--a placid-looking axis around which spin tendrils of swing, blues, jazz, R&B;, and ‘60s-vintage soul music.

With his musicians still going through their warm-ups a little after 8:30, Otis began tinkling on the piano and eventually his noodling became a walking-blues figure on which he was joined by the entire band.

Payne, a performer of classy presence and subtle physical movement, soon demonstrated that he’s got the raspy-voiced Wilson Pickett-Otis Redding thing nailed flat.

The Georgia-bred singer cranked up the heat with a funky reading of Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood” that segued into the Jimmy Reed blues, “Baby, What You Want Me to Do.” Ramona followed him to the microphone to deliver a lovely version of the Billie Holiday ballad, “God Bless the Child.”

It wasn’t long before the audience got into the act. They sang along with Otis on “Willie and the Hand Jive,” the song driven by a Bo Diddley-ish beat that was Otis’ biggest-ever hit in 1958.

And their energy didn’t flag when that was followed by the slinky-cool “Harlem Nocturne.” Primarily, this was because the band’s interpretation gradually assumed a strip-club swagger as alto saxophonist Solomon led them through the instrumental that Otis recorded in 1946.

Radical changes of tone and pace from one selection to another, as well as a tendency to shift musical gears several times during a single piece, characterized the entire show.

Otis played the vibraphone on one instrumental that wound through jump blues, New Orleans second-line, and Kansas City-style swing before segueing into some foot-stomping traditional jazz that featured Wilson on clarinet. Then, back at the keyboard, Otis led his charges through a languorous reading of Duke Ellington’s 1927 recording, “Creole Love Call.”

In another instance, Payne performed a version of the ballad “What a Wonderful World” that remained true to Louis Armstrong’s 1968 recording, and the band followed with a N’Awlins-style rendition of the standard, “All of Me,” during which several of the horn players moved through the small club as they played.

Later, Ramona’s sultry work on “Stormy Monday Blues” gave way to a frisky instrumental version of “Bye Bye Blackbird” on which Wilson played both clarinet and baritone sax solos.

That introduced a closing segment in which the singers took turns on such ‘60s soul chestnuts as Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay” and “Can’t Turn You Loose” and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Dance to the Music.”

By then, the audience was on its feet and dancing. A strange and wonderful sight, proving that even in staid La Jolla, well-played, soulful music can provide a cathartic experience.

The Johnny Otis Show will be presented tonight and Saturday at 9 and 11 p.m., and Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.