Gail (Li’l Bit) Muldrow, guitar and vocals.
Paul Lamb, bass.
Nick Otis, drums and vocals.

$20 suggested donation,
but pay just what you can for our Sunday shows. byob.
Students, $5-$10 suggested;  kids free.
Come for a tune, come for the afternoon, it’s all fine.
For a seat reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733,
but your seat is up for grabs at showtime, so don’t be late!

Nick Otis returns to Bird & Beckett tonight with all the Otis family’s funk and soul, driving a mighty blues/rock trio featuring the powerhouse guitarist and vocalist Gail Muldrow.

Nick, a hard rockin’ drummer leading the party from behind the kit, is the rightful heir to the Johnny Otis legacy, alongside brothers Shuggie and Jon, Nick’s son Niko and Shuggie’s son Eric. And then there’s Gail, a fierce guitarist who played and sang with Sly & the Family Stone and Graham Central Station, who has drawn comparison to Jimmy Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Albert Collins and brings to mind the power and individuality that such singers as  Little Esther Phillips, Etta James, Big Mama Thornton and Sugar Pie DeSanto brought to Johnny Otis’s legendary band. Here’s a taste of Gail. 

Poppa Johnny Otis — Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes at birth, Greek by ethnicity and Black by nature; born in Vallejo, raised in Berkeley and coasting to the sweet end of a long life on the road in Sebastapol — set the nation rocking in 1945 with the Johnny Otis Show and a long succession of hits that included Harlem Nocturne, Willie & the Hand Jive, Ma He’s Making Eyes at Me, Rockin’ Robin and a host of others over many decades.

Check out this clip. Nick, or Nickie, as he was called at the time, was tour manager for Johnny’s traveling revue in 1984, and later was by his father’s side in Sebastapol, when Johnny ran a grocery store, selling his own apple juice — a throwback to the store Johnny’s father ran in the Black community in the Berkeley flatlands when Johnny was a kid — a Mecca for many on the weekends, when the shelves were pushed back, chairs were set up and the Johnny Otis Show happened then and there, with Johnny’s apple juice sold to the thirsty, week in and week out for years. 

Once he was old enough to hold a drumstick, Nick was along for his father’s joyous ride, and he continues to beat the skins and raise the joyous sound.

The family legacy lives on to this day!

 

Read more here and hear last summer’s Nick Otis Orchestra outing in Glen Park!

 

And read here about the Otis Family Tree!