Terry Callier

Terry Callier was a little-known singer-songwriter who mixed soul, folk and jazz in his early years, but was rediscovered by a new audience at the turn of the 2000s. Born in Chicago on May 24, 1945, he studied piano from the age of three and began composing as a child, later singing in doo-wop bands. He then learned to play the guitar and made his stage debut when he was noticed and signed by Chess Records, then Prestige, who signed him to record his first album, The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier (1966), revealing his talent for writing at the crossroads of soul and folk, in the absence of public success or label support. He then joined the Cadet label with his producer Charles Stepney, and signed the albums Occasional Rain (1971), What Color Is Love (1972) and I Just Can't Help Myself (1973), which met with the same fate. Without a contract after the bankruptcy of parent company Chess, Terry Callier turned to the soul and disco fashions of Elektra and scored a minor hit with "Sign of the Times" (No. 78 in the R&B charts), followed by an appearance at the Montreux Festival. Faced with a lack of appreciation, he retired from music in 1983 and went back to university to become a computer programmer, while studying sociology. Now anonymous once again, in 1991 he received a call from Acid Jazz label boss Eddie Piller, who invited him to perform at discotheques in the UK, bringing out a track from 1983, "I Don't Want to See Myself (Without You)". Back on stage, Callier collaborated with the band Urban Species and Beth Orton, then signed with the Talkin' Loud label for the albums Timepeace (1998) and Lifetime (1999). In 2002, Mr Bongo took over with Speak Your Peace (2002), featuring a collaboration with Paul Weller on "Brother to Brother", followed by Lookin' Out in 2005. In 2009, the trip-hop-tinged Hidden Conversations was produced by Massive Attack. The singer was at the height of his popularity when he died of cancer on October 27, 2012, at the age of 67.