Terry Callier

Terry Callier
Background information
Birth name	Terrence Orlando Callier
Born	(1945-05-24)May 24, 1945 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died	Chicago, United States
Genres	Folk, jazz, soul
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, computer programmer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1962–1983, 1991–2012

Terrence Orlando Callier, known as Terry Callier (May 24, 1945 – October 27, 2012) was an American jazz, soul and folk guitarist and singer-songwriter.

Life and career

Callier was born in the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in the Cabrini–Green housing area. He learned piano, was a childhood friend of Curtis Mayfield, Major Lance and Jerry Butler, and began singing in doo-wop groups in his teens. In 1962 he took an audition at Chess Records, where he recorded his debut single, "Look at Me Now". At the same time as attending college, he then began performing in folk clubs and coffee houses in Chicago, becoming strongly influenced by the music of John Coltrane. He met Samuel Charters of Prestige Records in 1964, and the following year they recorded his debut album. Charters then took the tapes away with him into the Mexican desert, and the album was eventually released in 1968 as The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier. Two of Callier's songs, "Spin, Spin, Spin" and "It's About Time", were recorded by the psychedelic rock band H. P. Lovecraft in 1968, as part of their H. P. Lovecraft II album. H. P. Lovecraft featured fellow Chicago folk club stalwart George Edwards, who would go on to co-produce several tracks for Callier in 1969.

He continued to perform in Chicago, and in 1970 joined the Chicago Songwriters Workshop set up by Jerry Butler. He and partner Larry Wade wrote material for Chess and its subsidiary Cadet label, including The Dells' 1972 hit "The Love We Had Stays on My Mind", as a result of which he was awarded his own recording contract with Cadet as a singer-songwriter. Three critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums followed, produced by Charles Stepney Occasional Rain (1972), What Color Is Love (1972), and I Just Can't Help Myself (1974). These demonstrated that Callier influences included R&B, soul and jazz. Subsequently he toured with George Benson, Gil Scott-Heron and others. Cadet and its parent label Chess were sold in 1976 and Callier was then dropped from the label. The Songwriters Workshop closed in 1976. The following year, he signed a new contract with Elektra Records, releasing the albums Fire On Ice (1977) and Turn You to Love (1978). The opening track of the latter album, "Sign Of The Times", was used as the theme tune of radio DJ Frankie Crocker and became Callier's only US chart success, reaching # 78 on the R&B chart in 1979 and prompting his appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Callier continued to perform and tour until 1983, when he gained custody of his daughter and retired from music to take classes in computer programming, landing a job at the University of Chicago and returning to college during the evenings to pursue a degree in sociology. He re-emerged from obscurity in the late 1980s, when British DJs discovered his old recordings and began to play his songs in clubs. Acid Jazz Records head Eddie Piller reissued a little-known Callier recording from 1983, "I Don't Want to See Myself (Without You)", and brought him to play clubs in Britain. From 1991 he began to make regular trips to play gigs during his vacation time from work.

In 1994 Urban Species released their debut album Listen, the title track containing a sample of the bass line and guitar riff from Callier's 1973 recording "You Goin' Miss Your Candyman". In the late 1990s Callier began his comeback to recorded music, collaborating with Urban Species on their 1997 EP Religion and Politics and contributed to Beth Orton's Best Bit EP in 1997 before releasing the album Timepeace in 1998, which won the United Nations' Time For Peace award for outstanding artistic achievement contributing to world peace. His colleagues at the University of Chicago did not know of Callier's life as a musician, but after the award the news of his work as a musician became widely known and subsequently led to his dismissal by the University.

As well as touring internationally, Callier continued his recording career, releasing five albums after Timepeace, including Lifetime (1999), Alive (2001), Speak Your Peace (2002) featuring Paul Weller on the single Brother To Brother, Golden Apples of the Sun (2003) featuring the words of W B Yates poem the Song of the Wandering Aengus and Lookin' Out (2004). May 2009 saw his album Hidden Conversations featuring Massive Attack released on Mr Bongo records. In 2001, Callier performed "Satin Doll" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.

He died from cancer on October 27, 2012, aged 67.

Discography

Studio albums

• The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier (1964)
• Occasional Rain (Cadet, 1972)
• What Color Is Love (1972)
• I Just Can't Help Myself (1974)
• Fire On Ice (1977)
• Turn You To Love (1978)
• Time Peace (1998) #92 UK
• Lifetime (1999) #96 UK
• Speak Your Peace (2002) #156 UK
• The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier (2003) Remastered with three additional tracks including Golden Apples of the Sun
• Lookin' Out (2004)
• Hidden Conversations (2009)

Live albums

• TC in DC (recorded live in Washington D.C. 1982) (1996)
• Live at Mother Blues (recorded live in Chicago 1964) (2000)
• Alive (recorded live in London 2000) (2001)
• Welcome Home (recorded live in London 2008) (2008)

Compilations

• The Best Of Terry Callier on Cadet (1991)
• Essential - The Very Best Of Terry Callier (1998) #193 UK
• First Light: Chicago 1969-71 (1998)
• As We Travel (Harmless Records Compilation) (2002)
• Total Recall (remixes) (2003)
• Life Lessons - 40 Years and Running (2006)
• Terry Callier: Collected (Spectrum 9836360) (2007)
• About Time: The Terry Callier Story 1965-1982 (Beat Goes Public CDBGPD 199) (2009)

Singles

• I Just Can't Help Myself (Cadet Records 1973)
• Ordinary Joe / Golden Circle Of Your Love (Cadet Records)
• Look At Me Now / Ordinary Joe (Cadet Records)
• Butterfly (Elektra 1978)
• Sign Of The Times / Occasional Rain (Elektra 1979)
• I Don't Want To See Myself (Without You) (Erect Records 1982)
• Love Theme From Spartacus (Talkin' Loud 1998)
• Keep Your Heart Right / Love Theme From Spartacus (Talkin' Loud, Verve Records 1998)
• Love Theme From Spartacus (PolyGram 1998)
• I Don't Want To See Myself (Without You) (Talkin' Loud 1999)
• Silent Night (Talkin' Loud 1999)
• Holdin' On / When My Lady Danced (Talkin' Loud 1999)
• Tomorrow In Your Eyes (East West Connection Featuring Terry Callier) (Chillifunk Records 2001)
• Brother To Brother (Terry Callier With Paul Weller) (Mr Bongo 2002)
• Running Around / Monuments Of Mars (Mr Bongo 2002)
• In A Heartbeat (Koop Feat. Terry Callier) (Sony Music 2002)
• Lookin’ Out (Mr Bongo 2004)
• Live With Me (Massive Attack With Terry Callier) (Virgin 2006)
• Advice (Hardkandy Featuring Terry Callier) (Catskills Records 2006)
• Wings (Mr Bongo 2009)

DVD and videos

• Terry Callier - Live in Berlin (Universal Music 2005) Prod.: Modzilla Films/Beatrice Tillmann

Appearances

• Vocals on The Juju Orchestra's - What Is Hip (2007)
• Vocals on Massive Attack's "Live With Me" (2006)
• Vocals on Hardkandy's "Advice" (2006)
• Vocals on Nujabes's "Modal Soul" (2005)
• Vocals on Jean-Jacques Milteau's "Blue 3rd" (2003)
• Vocals on Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai" (2002)
• Vocals on Kyoto Jazz Massive's "Deep in Your Mind" (2002)
• Vocals on 4 Hero's "The Day of the Greys" (2001)
• Vocals on Koop's "In A Heartbeat" (2001)
• Vocals on Grand Tourism's "Les Courants d'Air" (2001)
• Vocals on Beth Orton's Central Reservation (1999)
• Vocals on Urban Species's "Religion and Politics" and "Changing Of The Guard", from the album "Blanket" (1998), after sampling his song "You Goin' Miss Your Candyman" in their song "Listen" from the album by the same name (1994)

• His song "You Goin' Miss Your Candyman" was featured in the French movie, Intouchables.

External links

• BBC obituary
• Mr Bongo label website
• Hodgkinson, Will. Open Secret. Guardian Unlimited. October 15, 2004. Retrieved April 5, 2006
• Ruffin, Mark. Terry Callier, Reluctant Musician. JazzUSA 'Zine. Retrieved April 5, 2006.
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