Browse by Artist: OTIS, SHUGGIE

Artist:	OTIS, SHUGGIE
Title:	Here Comes Shuggie Otis
Label:	EPIC
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	P 743877HLP

180 gram vinyl exact repro reissue of Shuggie's timeless 1970 debut. "Produced and arranged by his father, R&B legend Johnny Otis, the set features nine original cuts co-written by the pair, and in some cases others, and one written by Johnny with Dan Aldrich. The album is evenly divided between vocal tunes and instrumentals. The cast for these sessions included Johnny, Wilton Felder, Stix Hooper, bassist Al McKibbon, Preston Love, Jackie Kelso, Plas Johnson and a string section. 'Oxford Gray,' the album's opener, is an instrumental written by Johnny, Shuggie, Felder, and Hooper. Unlike anything that ever came before it, it's a baroque blues tune that features Shuggie playing both electric and acoustic bottleneck slide, a harpsichord, strings and a groovy little backbeat that walks the edge of blues and funk. It feels like a suite because of its many composed sections, but Shuggie's guitar is pure improvisational poetry. This is followed by the beautiful, psychedelic pop of 'Jennie Lee.' Shuggie's vocals weren't quite there, and were still somewhat tentative, but his gorgeous, Albert King-inflected guitar solo is right in the pocket, and stands in wonderful contrast to his acoustic string in the verses. The horns are restrained and regal, and the textural palette of the cut is lush and spacious. There is plenty of rootsy playing here too, such as on 'Bootie Cooler,' a Stax-styled blues groove, and the name-dropping shimmy and shake of 'Shuggie's Boogie,' the wig-tightening funk of 'Hurricane,' and the reverentially gritty 'Gospel Groove.' It closes with a modern soul rocker called 'Baby I Needed You,' with a killer hook in the refrain even if Shuggie's vocal doesn't quite pull it all off. Here Comes Shuggie Otis stands the test of time over 30 years later, and stands as a hallmark of songwriting, improvisation, and production acumen." -- All Music Guide

Artist:	OTIS, SHUGGIE
Title:	Freedom Flight
Label:	EPIC
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	P 743879HLP

180 gram vinyl exact repro reissue of Shuggie's 1971 album for Epic. "Shuggie wrote four of the album's seven tunes, did all the arrangements and helped Johnny with production suggestions. The senior Otis produced the set and allowed all of Shuggie's 'weird' ideas full-reign in production, and he was joined by a host of musicians from the first album, along with George Duke, Aynsley Dunbar and the backing chorus of Clydie King, Venetta Field and Shirley Matthews, among others. Shuggie plays a slew of instruments on the set. Its centerpiece is 'Strawberry Letter 23' that filled out Inspiration Information's reissue, but there are no weak cuts here. Sample the guitars on 'Sweet Thang,' 'Purple,' and 'Freedom Flight,' the latter displays two extended jamming exercises with lots of wondrously magical production touches; the former is a visionary bottleneck number that is warm and oozes soul. The bassline on 'Me And My Woman' prefigures that distorted keyboard bass P-Funk trademarked earlier, by two years." -- All Music Guide

Artist:	OTIS, SHUGGIE
Title:	Inspiration Information
Label:	EPIC
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	P 747285HLP

180 gram vinyl exact repro reissue of Shuggie's sublime 1974 album, featuring the original cover art. "Information belongs to the mind. It can be gathered, coded, processed and decoded, and used for any number of purposes. Inspiration comes from the soul. It is an elusive spark, one that cannot be bought or sold, nor artificially triggered. It is a gift. That the two can be combined into something quietly exciting is proven by the music on this, Shuggie Otis's third solo album. There is some old (several of the basic tracks were recorded over the last two years), and some new (for the first time, Shuggie has assumed complete artistic control, handling almost all of the production and arrangements). Most present, however, is the sense and beginning of a totally new struggle for Shuggie, the thirteen-year-old who made his recording debut with the Johnny Otis show, and later came to national attention through the Al Kooper sessions, is a man and an artist now. He is creating in the seventies, a time whose conflicts are being shaped by information -- and the lack of it. One gets the feeling that even as the information changes, so will the inspiration." -- Winston Cenac (Scoops), from the back cover.

Artist:	OTIS, SHUGGIE
Title:	Inspiration Information
Label:	LUAKA BOP
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	LBOP 045CD

2001 remaster; subtitled World Psychedelic Classics 2: California Soul. "Otis' smooth, trippy soul-funk opus, Inspiration Information -- first released in 1974, now remastered and reissued by David Byrne's Luaka Bop label with four bonus tracks from 1971's Freedom Flight -- was his third album for Epic records; in the Stevie Wonder soul-auteur vein, he wrote, sang and played almost every instrument on the album. Songs like 'Happy House' and 'Strawberry Letter 23' (a number one R&B hit for the Brothers Johnson) embraced the incense-and-peppermint psychedelia of the times without falling out of the pocket. The electronic grooves of 'XL-30' and the Isaac Hayes-like power of 'Not Available' reveals an expansive creativity that appeared unlimited -- maybe even a Prince-size talent in the making." --Rolling Stone

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