Shuggie Otis: Freedom Flight [MUSIC ON VINYL]

Why you'll love it

Music On Vinyl presses Freedom Flight on 180g audiophile vinyl. It holds the original "Strawberry Letter 23," which The Brothers Johnson turned into a hit in 1977, and the album's psychedelic soul has been a touchstone for record hunters ever since.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Most of us spent our late teens learning to drive. Shuggie Otis spent his making Freedom Flight, singing and playing guitar, bass, organ, piano, drums and bells, with his father, the bandleader Johnny Otis, producing and pitching in on percussion.

The cast around him is quietly stellar: George Duke on organ, electric piano and celesta, Wilton Felder on bass, Aynsley Dunbar and Mike Kowalski on drums, and Venetta Fields, Clydie King and Sherlie Matthews on backing vocals. "Ice Cold Daydream" opens with a thick, lazy funk groove, "Strawberry Letter 23" floats on chiming guitar and dreamy harmonies, "Sweet Thang" and "Me and My Woman" get down into the blues, and "Purple" drifts off somewhere psychedelic. The title track stretches out for most of side B, a long, hazy instrumental flight that shows just how far ahead of the curve he was.

It has been a favourite of soul collectors and sample hunters for decades, and the way the sounds blur together still feels modern. We'd suggest putting it on before anyone asks what you were doing at seventeen.

Also at Kops: more Shuggie Otis on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Epic (cat# MOVLP1339), a reissue of the 1971 album.