The man born Johnny Alexander Veliotes Jr.—known the world over as Shuggie Otis—takes pains to mention on his website that he throws his brothers, Jon and Nick, into the mix on his all-too-rare tours. He thrives on connectivity, and he learned much from his own father, Johnny Alexander Veliotes Sr., better known as Johnny Otis. But in an opposite way, his work depends on distance.
Veliotes Sr., Greek, couldn’t quite pass for Caucasian, and so in his words, “I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black.” His remarkable 90-year life included discovering Ella James, charting with “Willie and the Hand Jive,” and stabs at politics and journalism.
Shuggie ignited the afterburner of his father’s self-definition, setting forth for uncharted, yet eerily familiar, musical territory. Wielding the mastery of soul, blues, and rock on one hand and the novelty of lyrics, arrangements, and production on the other, he poured strange, scintillating new wine from seemingly tapped bottles.
In his early teens, Shuggie was so good that his father smuggled his young son onstage, often disguised with a fake mustache and dark glasses. The prodigy cut his first record in his late teens, collaborated with Al Kooper, and unleashed Freedom Flight in 1971, the year he turned 18. “Strawberry Letter 23” from that set became a hit for the Brothers Johnson, but Shuggie took three years for his follow-up, 1974’s Inspiration Information. He’s been sampled by OutKast, J Dilla, Beyonce, and others, but he couldn’t catch a break as his own self. He fell silent. He lost his record contract. He went back to playing on Johnny Otis sessions.
And that, until earlier this year, was that. Now Inspiration Information’s back with four bonus tracks and a whole new set attached—Wings of Love, a full-length second CD of what Shuggie’s been working on since 1974. It’s more of the same, with testifying, worrying, contemplating, and astral-planing—not to mention the long-jam title track, which grows its own wings and glides through a few mountains. Catch him now or wait until another Nixon resigns. With Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas, Rippin Chicken. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442, neumos.com. 8 p.m. $25 adv. 21 and over.
ANDREW HAMLIN
