He has worked with Frank Zappa and rapper Mos Def, Beyoncé and Outkast have sampled his work and Prince and Lenny Kravitz called him a source of inspiration. Yet many people will shrug their shoulders when hearing the name Shuggie Otis. For the most part, the 59-year-old American is famous because of the hit song he wrote for The Brothers Johnson, Strawberry Letter 23 (1977). Unfortunately, this million-selling hit didn't mean a new contract with any label for multi-instrumentalist Otis, who released three albums independently and had been without a label for ages. Disillusioned, he turned his back on the music industry, only to return at the end of the eighties in the band of his father, the legendary "King of Rhythm & Blues": Johnny Otis. Following the re-release of Inspiration Information (1974), Otis has now returned with his own band and the same amount of energy as in the early seventies. A must-see for the fans of psychedelic soul and raw blues.
