Freedom flight.

For its first few minutes -- before sunlit cannabinoid goodvibes settle in and the full band takes the tune off at a more R&B angle -- Shuggie Otis's 'Freedom Flight' sounds like the young guitarist is auditioning for a spot in John Coltrane's band last band. The repeating melodic movement, leaping up from homebase E to C#-B, gives shape to Shuggie's easygoing ruminations, sweeping him up now and again only for him to float idly back to earth. With chimes in the background, gentle melancholy in those repeated major sevenths, and sweet trills gathering up melodic fragments at the third and fifth (echoed later by the sax player), I can't help but hear 'Freedom Flight' as an 18-year-old from SoCal dreaming his way into his dad's copy of Interstellar Space, and easing out again on the memory of an R&B tune. Lovely, inessential music.