Song:Shuggie's Shuffle
Album:Kooper Session
When Al Kooper was a Columbia Records house producer in the late 60s, he worked on all kinds of albums. Probably the best known of these was the 1968 album Super Session with Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. That is one of the best one off albums ever recorded. But you may not know that there was a second Super Session album released in 1969 with 15 year old guitar prodigy Shuggie Otis. This is another album well worth getting. It's just not as well known as the first Super Session album. Shuggie Otis was born Johnny Veliotes Jr. Nov. 30, 1953 in Los Angeles. He is the son of R&B legend Johnny Otis. What a lot of fans don't know was that Johnny Otis was not black. He was Greek. Shuggie's mother was black and she gave him that nickname when he was an infant. It's supposed to be Sugar. Kooper signed Otis to Epic Records and he also wanted to record an album with him. Super Session was recorded over a weekend. It's mostly a jam session with Kooper on organ, Otis on guitar, Mark "Moogy" Klingman on piano, Stu Woods on bass and Wells Kelly on drums. Klingman would go on to be closely associated with Todd Rundgren. The thing to remember is this is a 15 year old kid swinging that axe in a recording studio for the very first time with seasoned professional musicians. It's simply remarkable. This album has been reissued by the British label Repertoire. The cover is slightly different because it doesn't have the words "Super Session Vol. II" on the cover. It just says Kooper Session. Otis recorded three albums for Epic which were great albums that didn't sell. But he did write Strawberry Letter 23 which was a huge hit for The Brothers Johnson. He still gets royalty checks for that. His sons Lucky and Eric are musicians continuing the Otis legacy. By the early 70s, Al Kooper left Columbia for MCA and he discovered and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd. Here's a video for Shuggie's Shuffle by Al Kooper featuring Shuggie Otis.
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