The three hundred and fourth album: #304 Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information

In the years that I've been going through this list, jazz has been a contentious genre for me - even live performances haven't won me over and I still proudly have the "Jazz is dead" postcard on display that I got handed in LA. Now Inspiration Information isn't jazz, it's soul and funk and other genres deriving from it, but some of its high points feel like a jazz fusion, fading into the background sometimes while at other times pulling you in when they're different. There's R&B in here, there's funk, there's all sorts of things that work really well out here. Mostly, this is a good album to have on, working to keep me entertained without dominating