Shuggie Otis at The Forum

Time was, when they reserved the vision tag for the scant few artists who truly envisioned panoramic music Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, John Coltrane. Today they hand out the 'visionary' tags as freely as they dispense the gold records, like party favors out of a cardboard box. Shuggie Otis truly had the vision thing. Compared at the wispy age of 15 with Hendrix and the great Kings of blues guitar (B.B., Albert, Freddie), the young phenom went on to make two expansive, genre-defying, deeply curious albums, 1971’s 'Freedom Flight' and 1974’s 'Inspiration Information.' The records, essentially crafted as a one- man band, floored Sly Stone, gave the Brothers Johnson their most enduring hit and predated the stylistic synthesist Prince by half a decade.