Shuggie Otis
Freedom Flight

Mauro calls aliens, respond aliens …

Mauro calls aliens, RESPOND ALIENS …

MAURO CALLS ALIENS, RESPOND ALIENS …

Nothing, ever since the Duke's world terrified them (see my review of Pinups) they haven't shown up again. Too bad, I had a great story and some Rock/Blues to share with the extraterrestrials, also because they are not only missed by me but also by some Debaserians.

So, with only the company of the big cat Ziggy blissfully stretched out on my knees, not having (yet) the vinyl I look for "Freedom Flight" on Tidal, click play and close my eyes. Memories unravel in my mind lingering on three frames spaced a decade apart:

1994, at the cinema: Vincent and Jules walk through the corridor of a housing project. A barely perceptible music, muffled by the carpet of the premises, serves as a background to the conversation between the two about Marsellus’s wife and how he threw out a guy who gave her a foot massage. Vincent is worried …

2004, Mediaworld: I find on sale a 2002 reissue CD of the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack (Collector’s Edition) and, among the extra tracks, "Strawberry Letter #23" credited to the "Brother Johnson" appears. I don't remember its presence in the movie but I like it. Vincent is dead … (and also Beaumont killed by Ordell in Jacky Brown, right on the - this time clearly audible - notes of "Strawberry Letter #23", always in the BJ cover).

2014, at home with Spotify on shuffle (starting from the album "Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic): I hear the notes of "Strawberry Letter #23" again but in a slower version, less funky and more psychedelic soul: on the PC screen a huge face on a terribly ugly cover, artist Shuggie Otis, work "Freedom Flight". But who is this? Mauro is curious but with limited knowledge, just like Don Abbondio …

Last night, Pinto Dischi: I am looking for a copy in good condition and at an affordable price of "Freedom Flight" that I absolutely must own! I can't find it but I bring home "Kooper Session" credited to Al Kooper and, indeed, Shuggie Otis, USA reissue vinyl from the early '70s. Once home, the first thing I do is submit it to the baptism that marks the entry of the work into my collection (washing the record from decades of encrusted dust between the grooves). Extracting the vinyl from the cover, a yellowed notebook sheet with a handwritten text pops out, the first words of which are: "Who is Shuggie Otis?" And no, I swear, this time it's all true, aliens have nothing to do with it. Only fate, supreme and predetermined destiny, organized everything.

Reading the words resurrected from oblivion, I am disappointed to realize that they are merely the translation of the cover notes signed by Al Kooper introducing Shuggie to the audience. Too bad, I would have preferred some personal notes from the first owner. Certainly, he was a blues enthusiast and, probably, now listens to jam sessions of Jimi & Co. sitting on a cloud. Who knows what will become of my vinyl in so many years …

Unable to use what destiny has offered me, since Kooper's narration stops at the date of "Kooper Session" publication (1969), it's up to me to tell you a bit about Shuggie, even though the subject's bibliography is not very exhaustive. What immediately emerges is that, just as Carneade is a Mr. Nobody (in Don Abbondio's ears) who became, for this reason, the antonomasia of an unheard-of person, Otis is famous for not becoming famous when he had the chance, and this sharpens my curiosity. If only because I love stories like Sixto Rodriguez, even if, in this case, bad luck isn't what keeps the prodigy boy away from success. I think he's also distant from Tucker Crowe, the character played by Ethan Hawke in "Juliet, Naked - Tutta Un'Altra Musica," an old American alternative rock star who personifies the gap between fans' elaboration of their myths and the concrete reality of an artist without inspiration anymore. The few news I manage to find on the web makes me think, rather, of a boy, at first too arrogant and then - having missed the train of life - resigned to becoming a session musician.

Otis, born in Los Angeles on November 30, 1953, is the son of rhythm and blues pioneer Johnny Otis and is the personification of a legend's abortion. He began playing the guitar at two years old and performing professionally with his father's band at just eleven, often disguising himself with dark glasses and fake moustaches to perform in nightclubs. A bass wizard who appeared in Frank Zappa's "Hot Rats," playing in the legendary "Peaches en Regalia," at the age of 15 (1969). As for guitar skills, it's enough to say that he was considered Jimi Hendrix's heir and, at the time, the cockiest guitarist in rock, having refused to join the Rolling Stones, and having declined collaboration proposals from David Bowie, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Quincy Jones. Also, being a multi-instrumentalist fluctuating between different genres and experimenting with drum machines, he was often compared to Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of a teenager finding himself in such a situation, it's normal to get lost in your ego thinking you are the son of Zeus and Mnemosyne, a modern music's new Euterpe. Reality will give him the cold shoulder and stop our ambitions within just three publications, besides the reviewed and the cited one with Kooper, the discography completes with "Inspiration Information" (1974), considered by all Shuggie's masterpiece that gained a cult following during the '90s with the emergence of acid jazz. And then, nothing. Between the mid-'70s and the beginning of this century, Otis performed a disappearing act. Perhaps he didn't have the right temperament for success, perhaps depression, alcohol, and drugs prevented the bud from blossoming into a splendid flower. Today he admits that he liked being away from the spotlight, away from the pressures of being Shuggie Otis, the former prodigy teenager who never managed to capitalize on all the success. Who knows if he really thinks so.

But, for music scholars, if the masterpiece is "Inspiration Information," I prefer "Freedom Flight" and the reason is that it doesn't perfectly fit a genre but contains funk, rock, classic R&B tracks, elements of blues, country, and old-school soul, fused together into something explosive. Unlike many classics of the genre, furthermore, this work sounds more casual, unpretentious thus, easily assimilable.

Although the most famous song is "Strawberry Letter #23," the album is loaded with magnificent tracks: "Ice Cold Daydream" is a piece between funk and blues with direct and fast guitar parts; "Sweet Thang" opens with a repeating country guitar sound developing into funk with organ, chorus, and piano which I think is the reason that has prompted Mick and Keith to pick up the phone. "Me and My Woman" is a blues, but the guitar work is much funkier than a standard blues and has a rhythm that makes you want to dance rather than drink your sorrows away. "Purple" is a classic blues, but with a bass line tasting funk. Finally, the title track, "Freedom Flight," is almost pure jazz; improvised, introspective and unpredictable with a seductive groove and a note of psychedelia that anticipates the path Otis will take for "Inspiration Information."

Otis not only wrote many of these tracks, but also played a range of instruments, supported by luminaries like George Duke, Wilton Felder, and Aynsley Dunbar. The combo itself reflects the diverse foundations of the album and its sound. Shuggie will almost certainly be remembered as the guy who wrote "Strawberry Letter #23," or maybe he'll be remembered as the guy who released "Inspiration Information" a few years later, influencing many acid jazz scene musicians in the '90s. Honestly, though, I think "Freedom Flight" is his finest moment.

• Ice Cold Daydream
• Strawberry Letter #23
• Sweet Thang
• Me And My Woman
• Someone's Always Singing
• Purple
• Freedom Flight