OTIS RUSH (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018)

Otis Rush was an American blues guitarist, singer & songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featuring a slow-burning sound and long bent notes ,   became known as West Side Chicago blues and is considered to be the major influence on many ’60s blues guitarists, including Mike Bloomfield, Peter Green and Eric Clapton. Rush played left-handed and his guitars were strung with the low E string at the bottom . He had a wide-ranged, tenor singing voice.

He  was born in Mississippi in 1934, & was the son of farmers Julia Campbell Boyd and Otis C. Rush .  He had 6 siblings and worked on a farm throughout his childhood. By the age of eight he had taught himself how to play guitar and sang in the church choir.

He moved to Chicago in 1948 and began playing in blues clubs in the city and recorded for  Cobra Records in the mid 1950s releasing eight singles, some featuring Ike Turner on guitar. His first single, “I Can’t Quit You Baby”, in 1956 reached number 6 on the Billboard R&B chart. Further Cobra hits were “Double Trouble” and “All Your Love.”

Cobra Records closed in 1959, and so Rush signed up with Chess Records the following year . He recorded eight numbers with them ,six of which feature on the 1969 album ‘Door to Door’. In 1962 he recorded the single ‘Homework” (B side ‘I Have to Laugh’ ) with  Duke Records . By 1965, he was recording for Vanguard Records and touring the USA and Europe . In 1969, his album ‘Mourning in the Morning’ was released by Cotillion Records and  produced by Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites of Electric Flag. 

In 1971, Rush recorded the album Right Place, Wrong Time for Capitol Records, but Capitol did not release it. It was only released in 1976, after Rush purchased the master from Capitol and had it released by P-Vine Records in Japan. It is considered by many as one of his best works. However by the end of the 1970S he had completely stopped performing and recording.

He made a comeback in 1985 with a U.S. tour and the release of a live album, ‘Tops’, recorded at the San Francisco Blues Festival. Studio albums followed in the 1990s until his last studio recording ‘Any Place I’m Goin’ in 1998. Live performances carried on even so .

Sadly he suffered a stroke in 2003  and he did not play again . His last public appearance was at the Chicago Blues Festival on 12th June 2016 at the Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park. The Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel honored Rush’s appearance by declaring June 12 to be Otis Rush Day in Chicago. Unfortunately due to health problems Rush was unable to perform that day .

He died on September 29, 2018, from complications resulting from a stroke.

The Jazz Foundation of America honoured Otis Rush with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 ‘for a lifetime of genius and leaving an indelible mark in the world of blues and the universal language of music.’