Shuggie Otis

A prodigy

Shuggie Otis was born Johnny Alexander Veliotes Jr. on November 30, 1953 in Los Angeles, the son of the R&B bandleader Johnny Otis, who was of Greek descent, and Phyllis Walker, of African American and Filipino descent; Shuggie was his mother's coinage for sugar. He began guitar at two and played professionally with his father's band at 11. He named Jimi Hendrix, Arthur Lee and Sly Stone as influences. At 15 he recorded Kooper Session with Al Kooper (Columbia, 1969) and played electric bass on Frank Zappa's "Peaches en Regalia" on Hot Rats. B.B. King called him his favorite new guitarist.

Here Comes Shuggie Otis (Epic, 1970) was his debut, and Freedom Flight followed in September 1971, produced by Johnny Otis, with "Strawberry Letter 23", "Sweet Thang" and a 12:57 title piece. Otis played vocals, guitar, bass, organ, piano and drums on it, with Wilton Felder on bass and George Duke on keys, and AllMusic gave it about four and a half stars. The Brothers Johnson's 1977 cover of "Strawberry Letter 23" reached number five on the Hot 100 and topped the R&B chart.

Inspiration Information

Inspiration Information (October 1974, Epic), his last album for the label, was produced by Otis and recorded between 1971 and 1974, at Hawk Sound and Columbia Studios in Los Angeles by Wikipedia, or in a home studio by other accounts. He told Wax Poetics that it was the first time he had ever written an album, that he played most of it himself, writing out the strings, horns, flutes and harps, and that it took about two years; he saw a Maestro Rhythm King at Wallichs Music City on Sunset and Vine. It reached 181 on the Billboard 200, and the title single number 56 on the R&B chart. Epic dropped him soon after, in late 1974 he turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones tour and Quincy Jones's offer to produce a follow-up.

Luaka Bop, David Byrne's label, reissued it on April 3, 2001, with four bonus tracks from Freedom Flight, and Epic and Legacy released it in 2013 with the unreleased Wings of Love, a double CD with a booklet and an introduction by Raphael Saadiq. Pitchfork gave it 8.8 and Uncut 9 out of 10, John Lewis writing that there is nothing sonically conservative about this album. J Dilla sampled "Not Available" on Donuts, Digable Planets "Island Letter", and Kanye West "Strawberry Letter 23"; OutKast, Beyonce and RJD2 have sampled him too. Otis said he had heard only about a quarter of the samples.

Return

Otis toured again in 2013 with his band Shuggie Otis Rite in Australia, Japan, the US, Ireland and the UK, and Live in Williamsburg (recorded at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in April 2013) came out in October 2014. He played Koko in London in 2016. Inter-Fusion (Cleopatra, 2018), mostly instrumental, has Carmine Appice on drums and Tony Franklin on bass, and on June 30, 2022 Freedom Flight and Inspiration Information were reissued on limited colored vinyl, 500 copies each. Prince and Lenny Kravitz are among those who have praised him.