Terry Callier

小簡介
英國Folk-Soul教父。
英國Folk-Soul教父Terry Callier于美國時間2012年10月29日在家中逝世，享年67歲。
北京時間2012年10月30日消息，據外國媒體報道，英國Folk-Soul教父Terry Callier于美國時間10月29日在家中逝世，享年67歲。而《芝加哥太陽時報》第一時間披露了這條消息，Terry Callier曾是Trip-pop界超級樂隊大舉進攻（Massive Attack）御用作詞人。據了解，Terry Callier從1962年就開始了自己長達50多年的音樂生涯，曾與簽約于60年代著名音樂巨頭切斯唱片公司（Chess Records）。而Terry早期的代表音樂作品包括1972年發行的《Occasional Rain》、1973 年的《What Color Is Love》以及1974的《I Just Can't Help Myself》。截至到1980年，Terry逐漸退居幕后參與音樂創作并在現代唱作領域取得了非常大的成功，更是2012年英國BBC年度之聲冠軍Michael Kiwanuka等多位年輕唱作人的音樂榜樣。
by Jason Ankeny
For far too long, folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier was the exclusive province of a fierce but small cult following; a singer/songwriter whose cathartic, deeply spiritual music defied simple genre categorization, he went all but unknown for decades, finally beginning to earn the recognition long due him after his rediscovery during the early 90s. Born in Chicagos North Side — also home to Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, and Ramsey Lewis — and raised in the area of the notorious Cabrini Green housing projects, Callier began studying the piano at the age of three, writing his first songs at the age of 11, and regularly singing in doo wop groups throughout his formative years. While attending college, he learned to play guitar, eventually setting up residency at a Chicago coffeehouse dubbed the Fickle Pickle and in time coming to the attention of Chess Records arranger Charles Stepney, who produced Calliers debut single Look at Me Now in 1962.
In 1964, Callier met Prestige label producer Samuel Charters, and a year later they entered the studio to record his full-length bow The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier; upon completion of the session, however, Charters traveled to Mexico with the master tapes in tow, and the album went unreleased before finally appearing to little fanfare in 1968. Undaunted, Callier remained a fixture of the Windy City club scene, and in 1970 he and partner Larry Wade signed on with his boyhood friend Jerry Butlers Chicago Songwriters Workshop. There they composed material for local labels including Chess and Cadet, most notably authoring the Dells 1972 smash The Love We Had Stays on My Mind. The songs success again teamed Callier with Stepney, now a producer at Cadet, and yielded 1973s Occasional Rain, a beautiful fusion of folk and jazz textures which laid the groundwork for the sound further explored on the following years What Color Is Love?
Despite earning strong critical notices and building up a devoted fan base throughout much of urban America, Callier failed to break through commercially, and after 1975s I Just Cant Help Myself he was dropped by Cadet; in 1976, he also suffered another setback when Butler closed the Songwriters Workshop. Upon signing to Elektras Jazz Fusion imprint at the behest of label head Don Mizell, Callier resurfaced in 1978 with the lushly orchestrated Fire on Ice; with the follow-up, 1979s Turn You to Love, he finally cracked the pop charts with the single Sign of the Times, best known as the longtime theme for legendary WBLS-FM disc jockey Frankie Crocker. He even appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival. However, when Mizell exited Elektra, Callier was quickly dropped from his contract; after a few more years of diligent touring, he largely disappeared from music around during the early 80s; a single parent, he instead accepted a job as a computer programmer, returning to college during the evenings to pursue a degree in sociology.
Despite essentially retiring from performing, Callier continued composing songs, and in 1991 he received a surprise telephone call from fan Eddie Pillar, the head of the U.K. label Acid Jazz. Pillar sought permission to re-release Calliers little-known, self-funded single from 1983, I Dont Want to See Myself (Without You); seemingly overnight, the record became a massive success on the British club circuit, and the singer was soon flown to Britain for a pair of enormously well-received club dates. In the coming months, more gigs followed on both sides of the Atlantic, and in 1996, Callier even recorded a live LP, TC in DC. In 1997, he teamed with British singer Beth Orton, another of his most vocal supporters, to record a pair of tracks for her superb EP Best Bit; the following year, Callier also released his Verve Forecast debut Timepeace, his first major-label effort in close to two decades. Lifetime followed in 1999, and two years later came Alive, recorded live at Londons Jazz Cafe. Callier returned in 2002 with Speak Your Peace and 2005 with Lookin Out.