Sometimes it is not so easy to find a starting in the stories of musicians who tell ... is not easy to identify what may be the point from which to start the description of their formation and explain, in a certain way, why certain choices. Sometimes these problems can be due to a life story full of anecdotes and stories or an objective complexity of finding a line in the musical production. These situations are easily overcome by referring to three or four points (light, it comes to hard ... ed) and drain in the information form, then, the stories. In some cases, however, the difficulty is due to a form of emotional involvement that history, music, the artist's life tells the storyteller. In this case there is no method or route to follow to overcome the impasse.
In the case of Terry Callier's musical history - and here I confess - my emotion reaches very high levels: his music has been a faithful companion in a certain period of my life and if I'm not totally estranged from the memories, songs Occasional Rain like Satin Doll and continue to be part of me without any of you had to tie you want other stories and, in this case, I failed ...
Terry's music has a particular sound full of black jazz, soul, funk and folk, can not be assessed. The predominance of the voice, mellow and soft, soul and jazz has points and fits from the use of accompanying a folk acoustic guitar. He recalls the rhythmic funk. Jazz is in the use of time, the winds and the product is a unique sound where you can find Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Gil Scott Heron, George Benson.
But let's order.
For 11 years, a native of Chicago, Terry became part of a group doo - woop, that was performing in the bathrooms of the school complex where the marble walls to improve acoustics allowing for a cleaner sound transmission. Then, every day, come home, he spends his time playing and playing with his best friend, Curtis Mayfield, who became one of the most important artists soul.
Music capacity of Callier could not escape Charles Stepney that the seventeen year old Terry led a hearing at the Chess Records. The result was that Terry Callier went into the recording studio on Monday morning and recorded "Look At Me Now" and the Saturday after the disk was nell'hit list of Illinois. The success was such that Leonard Chess, the boss of Chess Records, offered him a tour with Etta James and Muddy Waters to which, however, Terry did not attend because of the strong desire of the mother who forced him, at the moment, to put in a drawer dreams and to pursue graduate studies. In these years of university study Terry was able to hone his guitar technique and discard, then the basis for the refinement of his sound.
In 1964, at age 19, Callier was signed to the Prestige Records and went into the studio to record "The New Folk Sound Of Terry Callier," a debut album with a story little 'detail. To end the recording, Samuel Charters, the manufacturer of the Prestige, went on a journey to discover himself, bringing with them the tapes of "The New Folk Sound" in the desert of New Mexico where he spent two years in the "travel" propostigli from hallucinogenic mushrooms and the notes of the music of Terry. Only to return to the reality reale di Charters, l'album fu dato alle stampe e pubblicato all'insaputa di Terry Callier. Il disco fu trovato casualmente, tempo dopo, dal fratello di Terry in un negozio di dischi e libri usati.
La storia di “The New Folk Sound” iniziò a circolare negli ambienti e, nel 1971, all'età di 26 anni, Terry fu chiamato a tenere una serie di serate tra Chicago e New York, con gente del calibro di Gil Scott Heron e George Benson, e scrisse per “The Love We Had Stays In My Mind”, per la Cadet, che i Dells portarono ad un discreto successo. Grazie a questa collaborazione la Cadet gli sottopose un contratto per tre album da pubblicare nel periodo '72/'74. Born, in order, Occasional Rain, What Color Is Love and I Just Can not Help Myself, three wonderful albums that surprise to the union between the hypnotic and very warm voice of Terry and orchestral arrangements.
The three albums, however, did not have a great immediate success, indeed, the public saw them recently and apart from Ordinary Joe, single from Occasional Rain, which entered the charts and became a masterpiece in the U.S. not left its mark in sales, but did speak of the folk music critics - jazz sound of Terry Callier giving his music a more and more niche.
In 1976, Callier, at the invitation of Gil Scott Heron, Don met Mizel that made him sign a contract with Elektra for the album Fire On Ice (1977) and Turn You To Love (1978).
Fire On Ice is an album with original songs and Turn You To Love, by choice of commercial Elektra, contains two tracks taken from Occasional Rain - the title track and Ordinary Joe - to allow easier placement of the disc on the market. Success, however, came with 45 laps Sign Of Time (has nothing to do with the original song by Prince, ed) that led the artist to be more Callier programmed by Frankie Crocker on WBLS, and one of the artists most acclaimed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1979.
Callier's career is characterized by sudden entrances and exits from the music scene. Very strange and fascinating at the same time is the consideration that his voluntary departure from the music scene have taken place at times of heightened awareness. In the 60's a breakaway from the scene soon found himself after the success of Look At Me Now and then, after the story of The New Folk Sound. The 70s seem to be aimed at achieving the success that, after 5 discs important and beautiful, it starts to get through a single in 1979 but here again the history of privacy Terry led to a profound choice: the twelve year old daughter, Sundiata, had a previous marriage, went to see him in Chicago for a summer vacation and chose to live with his father. Obviously, like any good father, Callier, realizing the profound difficulty of managing his own musical career and custody of her daughter made a choice: To ensure a steady income and a stable and peaceful life and manageable, retired from the scene and began a career as a computer teacher at the University of Chicago.
In the '90s, however, in full recovery of the sound era soul jazz funk acid jazz groove of the period, Callier was called to play in the English club from a certain Eddie Piller, in the meantime, for the Acid Jazz label, was re-released I Do not Want To See Myself (Without You) written by the Erect Callier Records in 1982, before his retirement.
In one form of tracking the success in which inverted parts, prof. Callier was attacked by reputation beyond national borders and beyond the niche audience that he had dedicated to his favorite in the 70s.
In 1995, the Prestige reissue The New Folk Sound commercial success than getting a decent lead to the emergence of a new phase of life and Art of Terry Callier. The new wave of success will bring, in fact, writing a new album, Time Peace (1998), with whom will win the prize of the United Nations "Time For Peace Arward" for artistic contribution to world peace.
consequence of the prestigious award was the forced removal from university teaching. His artistic career was not known by the college of teachers with whom he worked Callier and this was seen as a breach of contract. Terry was fired and chose, by force, this time to concentrate on artistic life involving, in some projects, including the daughter Sundiata (is the author of When A Lark Is Singing by Life In Time - 1999).
From that moment on, we find the name of Terry Callier in many excellent collaborations in projects that go beyond the black folk and jazz music. Interval I live recordings (Highly recommended, beautiful Lookin 'Out the Welcome Home 2004 and 2008, without neglecting Hidden Conversations of 2009, all for the Mr. Bongo) the influence and the voice and guitar of Terry Callier find in the work of Koop, Massive Attack, 4-Hero, Paul Weller and, above all, in a persuasive Dolphins Berth Orton.
Good music.
Marco Assanti
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