Otis Rush

• Born: April 29, 1934, Philadelphia, MS
• Active: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
• Genres: Blues
• Instrument: Guitar, Vocals
• Representative Albums: "Essential Collection: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958," "Otis Rush, 1956-1958: His Cobra Recordings," "I Can't Quit You Baby: The Complete Cobra Sessions"
• Representative Songs: "I Can't Quit You Baby," "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)," "Homework"

Biography

Breaking into the R&B Top Ten his very first time out in 1956 with the startlingly intense slow blues "I Can't Quit You Baby," southpaw guitarist Otis Rush subsequently established himself as one of the premier bluesmen on the Chicago circuit. He remains so today.

Rush is often credited with being one of the architects of the West side guitar style, along with Magic Sam and Buddy Guy. It's a nebulous honor, since Otis Rush played clubs on Chicago's South side just as frequently during the sound's late-'50s incubation period. Nevertheless, his esteemed status as a prime Chicago innovator is eternally assured by the ringing, vibrato-enhanced guitar work that remains his stock-in-trade and a tortured, super-intense vocal delivery that can force the hairs on the back of your neck upwards in silent salute.

If talent alone were the formula for widespread success, Rush would currently be Chicago's leading blues artist. But fate, luck, and the guitarist's own idiosyncrasies have conspired to hold him back on several occasions when opportunity was virtually begging to be accepted.

Rush came to Chicago in 1948, met Muddy Waters, and knew instantly what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. The omnipresent Willie Dixon caught Rush's act and signed him to Eli Toscano's Cobra Records in 1956. The frighteningly intense "I Can't Quit You Baby" was the maiden effort for both artist and label, streaking to number six on Billboard's R&B chart.

His 1956-58 Cobra legacy is a magnificent one, distinguished by the Dixon-produced minor-key masterpieces "Double Trouble" and "My Love Will Never Die," the nails-tough "Three Times a Fool" and "Keep on Loving Me Baby," and the rhumba-rocking classic "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)." Rush apparently dashed off the latter tune in the car en route to Cobra's West Roosevelt Road studios, where he would cut it with the nucleus of Ike Turner's combo.

After Cobra closed up shop, Rush's recording fortunes mostly floundered. He followed Dixon over to Chess in 1960, cutting another classic (the stunning "So Many Roads, So Many Trains") before moving on to Duke (one solitary single, 1962's "Homework"), Vanguard, and Cotillion (there he cut the underrated Mike Bloomfield-Nick Gravenites-produced 1969 album Mourning in the Morning, with yeoman help from the house rhythm section in Muscle Shoals).

Typical of Rush's horrendous luck was the unnerving saga of his Right Place, Wrong Time album. Laid down in 1971 for Capitol Records, the giant label inexplicably took a pass on the project despite its obvious excellence. It took another five years for the set to emerge on the tiny Bullfrog label, blunting Rush's momentum once again (the album is now available on HighTone).

An uneven but worthwhile 1975 set for Delmark, Cold Day in Hell, and a host of solid live albums that mostly sound very similar kept Rush's gilt-edged name in the marketplace to some extent during the 1970s and '80s, a troubling period for the legendary southpaw.

In 1986, he walked out on an expensive session for Rooster Blues (Louis Myers, Lucky Peterson, and Casey Jones were among the assembled sidemen), complaining that his amplifier didn't sound right and thereby scuttling the entire project. Alligator picked up the rights to an album he had done overseas for Sonet originally called Troubles, Troubles. It turned out to be a prophetic title: much to Rush's chagrin, the firm overdubbed keyboardist Lucky Peterson and chopped out some masterful guitar work when it reissued the set as Lost in the Blues in 1991.

Finally, in 1994, the career of this Chicago blues legend began traveling in the right direction. Ain't Enough Comin' In, his first studio album in 16 years, was released on Mercury and ended up topping many blues critics' year-end lists. Produced spotlessly by John Porter with a skin-tight band, Rush roared a set of nothing but covers -- but did them all his way, his blistering guitar consistently to the fore.

Once again, a series of personal problems threatened to end Rush's long-overdue return to national prominence before it got off the ground. But he's been in top-notch form in recent years, fronting a tight band that's entirely sympathetic to the guitarist's sizzling approach. Rush signed with the House of Blues' fledgling record label, instantly granting that company a large dose of credibility and setting himself up for another career push. It still may not be too late for Otis Rush to assume his rightful throne as Chicago's blues king. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

Essential Collection: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958 Buy this CD	Screamin' & Cryin' Buy this CD	All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fools Pub Chicago Buy this CD	Otis Rush & Friends Live at Montreux 1986 [Bonus Tracks] Buy this CD	Blues Live Buy this CD
Otis Rush & Friends: Live at Montreux 1986 Buy this CD	Otis Rush & Friends: Live At Montreux 1986 [DVD] Buy this CD	Good 'Un's: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958 Buy this CD	Introduction to Otis Rush Buy this CD	Otis Rush Live... And In Concert from San Francisco Buy this CD

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blues musician

Personal Information

Born on April 29, 1934, in Philadelphia, MS; son of O.C. and Julia (Boyd) Rush.

Career

Performed at 708 Club as "Little Otis," 1955; signed with Cobra Records and released the Top 10 single, "I Can't Quit You Baby," 1956; signed with Chess Records, 1959; signed with Duke Records, early-to-mid 1960s; recorded on Vanguard compilation, Chicago: The Blues Today!, 1966; played American Folk Blues Festival, 1966; performed at Ann Arbor Blues Festival, 1969-72; toured Japan and recorded Cold Day in Hell, 1975; released first studio effort in 16 years, titled, Ain't Enough Comin' In, 1994; released Any Place I'm Going, 1998.

Life's Work

While critics and fans have long appreciated Otis Rush's role in the founding of West Side Chicago blues, fame has eluded the bluesman for most of his career. "If there were any justice," wrote Bill Dahl in the San Francisco Chronicle, "guitarist Otis Rush would occupy the same exalted position ... as his longtime friend Buddy Guy." Rush first came to the public's attention when Cobra Records released "I Can't Quit You Baby" in 1956, introducing the minor key song with jazz flavorings onto the blues scene. But although Rush's musical career has been plagued with bad luck and record deals gone sour, he continues undaunted. "You don't have to be unhappy to play the blues," he told Jas Obrecht in Guitar Player. "I mean, I'm happy sometime. Sometime I'm not, no matter what I do.... I play the blues, but not because I'm sad--it's a livin'."

Born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1934, Rush was one of seven children born to O.C. Rush and his wife, Julia (Boyd) Rush. He sang in the church choir and listened to the blues of Tommy McClennan and Lightnin' Hopkins. Drawn to music, he learned the guitar from his two older brothers and by listening to records, and he also played the harmonica. Near the end of 1948 Rush left Mississippi for Chicago, where he lived with his sister. He attended Dunbar High School half-days and worked a variety of jobs over the next several years in Chicago's steel mills and stockyards.

Rush studied the guitar more closely after seeing Muddy Waters and Jimmie Rogers perform at local nightclubs in 1954. He told Dahl that he bought a "cheap amp, cheap guitar ... It seemed like it was dancing--when I hit a note on the guitar, the amp would bounce around." He played his first club date with Bob Jones at the Alibi and began playing full-time in 1955 at the 708 Club. At first he imitated Waters's sound, but this changed as he came under the influence of T-Bone Walker and B.B. King. Soon Rush fronted his own band under the name of Little Otis.

In 1956 Willie Dixon saw Rush perform and signed him to Eli Tascano's fledgling Cobra Records. Dixon wrote "I Can't Quit You Baby" and Rush recorded it for his first Cobra session. When the song was released as the label's first single, it reached number six on Billboard's R & B chart, helping to define the West Side Chicago sound. Robert Palmer wrote of the song in Deep Blues: "It was a medium-slow, steady-rocking shuffle, with Otis shouting the gospel blues and playing rapid-fire bursts of high-note guitar." Unlike Waters or Rogers, Rush often added saxophones to his ensemble and incorporated jazz influences. The music that Rush recorded for Cobra would later be collected on Otis Rush, 1956-1958: His Cobra Recordings. Koda declared in All Music Guide, "These are milestone recordings in the history of the blues and an essential part of anyone's collection."

In 1959, after Tascono's death, Rush successively signed with the Chess and Duke recording labels, but little of his music was released between 1959 and the mid-1960s. He continued to play at small clubs in Chicago, but was unable to repeat his early success at Cobra. In 1965, while still under contract to Duke, he attended a recording session for Vanguard Records. Four of his songs were included on the compilation titled Chicago: The Blues Today! Koda commented, "This Vanguard session ... was [Rush's] first in several years and finds him in exemplary form." The Vanguard album also brought Rush to the attention of new audiences. He performed at the American Folk Blues Festival in 1966 and at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival between 1969 and 1972. Rush also found appreciative audiences in Europe, and in 1969 he recorded Mourning in the Morning with guitarist Mike Bloomfield.

Despite a resurgence in his career, bad luck continued to follow Rush during the 1970s. In 1971 the well-known manager Albert Grossman cut a deal with Capital Records for Rush's next effort. Wrong Place, Wrong Time was produced by Nick Gravenites in San Francisco for $36,000 and turned over to Capitol for release. Despite the excellent quality of the set, Capitol decided to pass on the album, and the recording remained in limbo until the small Bullfrog label issued it in 1976. "This record doesn't mess around at all," noted Eugene Chadbourne in All Music Guide, adding that "the first track takes off like the man they fire out of a cannon at the end of a circus." Rush recorded Cold Day in Hell in 1975 and followed it with several live releases during the late 1970s.

During the 1980s Rush temporarily ceased performing due to frustrations with the music business. "Success is hard to come by, and there's a lot of false pretensions out here," he told Chris Morris in Billboard. "I wanted to get away from music. Matter of fact, I quit for two years, maybe longer. I stopped playin'." In 1986 Rush was slated to record an album for Rooster Blues, but walked out of the session due to dissatisfaction with the sound of his amplifier. He experienced further frustrations when Alligator Records bought the rights to Troubles, Troubles, a Rush album originally issued on the Sonet label in 1978. Instead of re-releasing the album as it had been recorded, Alligator decided to overdub keyboard parts, and reissued the album as Lost in the Blues in 1991.

In 1994 Rush re-established his prominence with the release of Ain't Enough Comin' In, his first studio album in 16 years. "If talent alone were the formula for widespread success," noted Bill Dahl in All Music Guide, "Rush would currently be Chicago's leading blues artist." Rush continued to tour and signed a recording contract with House of Blues in the mid-1990s. Because of his erratic career and infrequent releases, Rush's name lacks the recognition that has attached to players like Buddy Guy. As Robert Palmer in Deep Blues noted, though, few bluesmen can match Rush's passion: "I had heard bluesmen play and sing with comparable intensity and technique, but Otis Rush had something else--an ear for the finest pitch shadings and the ability to execute them on the guitar, not as mere effects but as meaningful components in a personal vocabulary, a musical language. He was playing the deep blues."

Awards

Grammy, Best Traditional Blues Album, 1999.

Works

Selected Discography

• Chicago: The Blues Today! (compilation), Vanguard, 1966.
• Mourning in the Morning, Atlantic, 1969.
• Right Place, Wrong Time, Bullfrog, 1976.
• Groaning the Blues, Flyright, 1980.
• Otis Rush, 1956-1958: His Cobra Recordings, Paula/Flyright, 1989.
• Ain't Enough Comin' In, Mercury, 1994.
• Any Place I'm Going, House of Blues, 1998.

Further Reading

Books

• Palmer, Robert, Deep Blues, Viking, 1981, p. 266.
• Rowe, Mike, Chicago Breakdown, Drake, 1975.
• Shaw, Arnold, Honkers and Shouters, Collier, 1978.

Periodicals

• Billboard, February 5, 1994, p. 13.
• Guitar Player, November 1993, p. 34.
• San Francisco Chronicle, September 22, 1996, p. 41.

On-line

• All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com
• Biography Resource Center, http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC

— Ronnie D. Lankford Jr

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