Shuggie Otis

Otis returned to his virtuoso guitarist days, launching stupendous solos on the back of soft-rock epics in a confounding but compelling show

What is old is new again, what is new is influenced by the old, and we are seeing more musical diversity than ever before.

With a concert ticket in hand to see a notoriously reclusive legend of the past, one never really knows just what to expect. An artist like Shuggie Otis is an especially curious case. After creating some of the most singularly influential albums of the early seventies, the psychedelic R&B pioneer disappeared

Following an early start backing up Etta James and his famous father (R&B legend Johnny Otis) the teenage wiz kid earned a surprising credit playing bass on Frank Zappa's "Peaches en Regalia.

With three albums under his belt by the age of twenty-one, Otis then fell off the radar until the nineties, when his work was re-discovered and the classic ‘Inspiration Information’ album re-released on David Byrne’s label.

He's stalling while a soundman fixes a misbehaving amp but he might be referring to Otis's long-overdue UK debut.

London Jazz Cafe, London, UK