Terry Callier- What Color Is Love?

Terry Callier has been a around since the mid 60’s hailing from the Cabrini Green projects of Chicago. He traversed Chi town’s folk scene in the late sixties early seventies and eventually retired from music. Opting for a steady paycheck he became an employee of the University of Chicago (who knew nothing of his releases until almost twenty years later) until bookings for performances of his music took him to the UK. This brought Callier out of retirement, back to recording and fanned the flames of a resurgence of interest in his music. In the late 90’s he delivered “Timepeace” for Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud label. Most notable are his lyrics that shower Sage- like wisdom over folk arrangements. He was, after all, a friend of Curtis Mayfield so the socio-political conscious lyrics carry over from the time period and are more than appropriate for current events. Callier’s back catalogue was brought back and thus more recordings like "Timepeace" and the wonderful “Speak Your Peace” featuring 4Hero and Incognito produced tracks, would introduce him to a new audience. It’s not surprising that Massive Attack would hook up with him for their greatest hits collection which led to a whole collaborative album to be released later this summer. Our focus however is Callier’s output from the Cadet Catalogue which was home to the Rotary Connection, Marshall Chess and master string arranger Charles Stepney. His three albums “Occasional Rain”(1972), “What Color Is Love?”(1973) and “I Just Can’t Help Myself”(1974) are in their own right pretty stunning. Sparse, rich in imagery and emotionally drenched, they are some of the most beautifully arranged pieces of music to come out of that or any other label. “What Color Is Love?” is a quiet storm of an album that features bits of folk, jazz, rock and classical music influences. Sound a little strange? These characteristics are not that uncommon. The Cadet Label churned out some of the most beautiful music the ‘60s had to offer dabbling here and there with genres and sounds. The opener “Dancing Girl” sets a drift on a bed of acoustic guitar depicting imagery of a dancer, only to change direction and drop slow swinging jazz drums depicting a heroin addict attempting to escape the reality of life. It’s a 9 minute suite that morphs into an all out horn section leaving gently the way it came. Orchestration plays such a huge part of the this album. The other tracks that jam are “You’re Goin’ Miss Your Candyman”, an acoustic folk rocker with a groove that builds. “Just As Long As We’re In Love” and it’s flipside “You Don’t Care”, feature a budding Minnie Riperton fresh off her Rotary debut. Her supportive call and response vocals add to Callier’s experienced delivery. On the latter her lonely vocal narrates the sentiments of the rejected walking away as the screen fades to black. Cinematic, to say the least.