guardian.co.uk; Adam Sweeting
Terry Callier at the Jazz Cafe in London in 2001. Photograph: David Levene
From his beginnings in jazz, folk and soul music onwards,
the singer and guitarist Terry Callier, who has died aged 67 after suffering
from throat cancer, struggled to find the popular recognition his varied
talents deserved. Nonetheless he released a string of enduring and influential
albums and, during the 1990s, enjoyed a creative rebirth in the UK when his
supple, soulful music was feted by the acid-jazz movement and he collaborated
with Beth Orton and Massive Attack.
Callier was born in Chicago and raised in the north side
of the city. Partly inspired by his mother's enthusiasm for singers such as
Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, he sang in amateur doo-wop groups in his
teens, and found himself in the midst of a remarkable group of local musicians
including Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler and Ramsey Lewis.
In 1964, he was signed to Prestige Records by the
producer Samuel Charters, with whom he cut his first album, The New Folk Sound
of Terry Callier. Featuring just an acoustic guitar, two bass players (an idea
Callier borrowed from the jazzman John Coltrane) and Callier's gentle but
hugely expressive voice, the album stands today as a minor masterpiece.
However, it was not released until 18 months later because in the meantime
Charters had disappeared to Mexico, taking the master tapes with him. Look at
Me Now, Callier's debut single, came in 1968, when he signed with Chicago's
renowned blues label, Chess.
Callier earned a living by playing gigs in New York and
Chicago until he was contacted by Butler in 1970 and recruited to his salaried
group of songwriters. "Our job was just to write songs and learn about the
music business," Callier told the journalist Angus Batey. "That was
incredible." The following year, the Chess producer Charles Stepney
approached Callier for songs. Callier supplied The Love We Had (Stays On My
Mind), which was recorded by the Dells and was successful enough to prompt a
recording contract for Callier from the Chess subsidiary Cadet. He made three
solo albums under Stepney's guidance: Occasional Rain, What Color Is Love and I
Just Can't Help Myself; commercial reward did not match their critical acclaim
and Cadet ended Callier's contract.
Hope was rekindled when Elektra Records came calling in
1977, though Callier refused to have any truck with the prevailing disco boom,
and his two Elektra albums continued his string of commercial flops. His
Elektra mentor, Don Mizell, quit the label in 1979, and Callier was dropped
shortly afterwards.
When his daughter, Sundiata, who was living with
Callier's ex-wife, told him she wanted to stay in Chicago to attend school,
Callier realised he had to have a steady income. "She needed me and the
music business just didn't seem like a viable option at that point," he
said. He secured a staff job as a computer programmer at the University of
Chicago, and relegated music to a mere hobby for the next decade and a half.
However, as the 90s dawned, Callier was amazed to be told
that he had become an icon of the British soul-jazz scene, thanks to a single,
I Don't Wanna See Myself (Without You), on an obscure label. This had caught
the ear of cutting-edge DJs such as Eddie Piller, who dropped in on Callier in
Chicago and invited him to perform at the 100 Club in London. His subsequent
string of shows at the Jazz Cafe became legendary for the devotion he aroused
in his listeners.
Callier sang two songs with Orton on her EP Best Bit and
he was signed to Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud label, for which he cut the albums
Timepeace (featuring Orton) and Lifetime, both suffused with a sense of faith
and yearning for redemption. After his record deal collapsed following a round
of record company mergers, the independent label Mr Bongo stepped into the
breach and released the live album Alive and a studio album, Speak Your Peace,
which featured a duet performed and co-written with Paul Weller.
Callier was sacked from his computer programmer's job and
concentrated once more on music, dividing his time between the UK and the US.
He recorded six acclaimed albums between 1999 and 2009. The last of these was
Hidden Conversations, on which he was joined by Massive Attack, with whom he
had collaborated on the single Live With Me, a Top 20 hit in 2006. "You
can make accessible music and still sing about love and peace and truth and
life and death," said Callier in 1996. "In the end, those are the
only things that matter."
He is survived by his daughter.
• Terry Callier, musician, born 24 May 1945; died 28
October 2012
• This article was amended on 31 October 2012. The New
Folk Sound of Terry Callier was released 18 months after it was recorded,
rather than four years. Callier signed with Chess in 1968, rather than 1963.
