Terry Callier

One of the many sad losses in the music world this past year was the passing of Terry Callier on October 28. Callier was a tremendously talented singer, guitarist and songwriter, one who recorded several woefully underappreciated albums in the 1970s, totally disappeared in the 80s, and then made an unexpected comeback in the 90s.

 

Part of the reason for Terry Callier’s lack of success was that his sound was not so easy to categorize. He stared out as a folk singer with a heavy blues foundation, but later garnished his songs with jazz, soul, and pop flavorings. While the songs on Callier’s albums covered a variety of styles, what held it all together and elevated each tune to a higher plateau was Callier’s magnificent voice, one that ranged from achingly lonesome to soul-stirring, depending on the mood of the song. Lyrically, Callier’s songs touched on familiar themes of love and loss, but also politics, war, and racial equality. These were not your typical light, fluffy pop tunes. Phrases such as “contemplative”, “romantic” and “sophisticated” have been used to describe Callier’s music. Others have tossed around terms like “quietly soulful” and “classical folk.” See what I mean? It’s damn hard to categorize Terry Callier. Just listen to the songs and savor them.  

 

His 1969 debut album for Vanguard, The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier, was a blend of acoustic blues and folk. It was a mellow, understated album, but also quite hypnotic — just Callier singing and playing acoustic guitar, accompanied by a bass player. But it impressed enough listeners that Callier made a bit of a name for himself and was later able to continue his recording career in the 70s, releasing delightful and genre-bending (if not blending) albums like What Color is Love, Fire on Ice, and Occasional Rain. That latter one was perhaps my favorite Terry Callier album, one that included the mesmerizing song “Ordinary Joe.”

 

Alas, none of Callier’s albums sold very well, and by 1983 he pretty much retired from the music business and started working as a computer programmer to support his daughter. But in the early-90s he experienced an unlikely resurgence in popularity after club DJ’s in the UK starting spinning his old records again. After a few guest appearances on recordings by Massive Attack and Beth Orton, Callier was inspired to stage a comeback of his own, and in 1998 he released the critically acclaimed Timepeace album. After another album, Lifetime in 1999, he released Speak Your Peace in 2002, an album that included a thrilling duet with Paul Weller on the song “Brother to Brother.”

 Terry Callier has sadly passed away, but most of his albums are still in print, waiting to be discovered by discerning fans of quality music, whether your preference is jazz, pop, or soul.

 

Raphael Saadiq

To my ears, most contemporary rhythm and blues music, with its sterile production standards and lame hip-hop beats, sounds boring and predictable. But one artist in the R&B arena, Raphael Saadiq, is doing something a bit new by going retro. Saadiq is a definite throwback to the golden era of soul singers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Not that he exactly sounds exactly like either one of those guys, or is just rehashing “old school” sounds, but the influences are definitely there and Saadiq is doing fun and inventive things with them. Listen to this music and smile: real soul is back.

Raphael Saadiq is not a brand new artist who has just emerged from the mists of the blogosphere. He has been recording solo albums for the better part of a decade, and before that he was a member of the popular group Tony Toni Tone (when he went by the name of Raphael Wiggins) in the 1980s and early 90s. He was also a member of the R&B “supergroup” Lucy Pearl (a band that also included singers from En Vogue and A Tribe Called Quest) who released a highly acclaimed album in 2000.

I liked the Tony Toni Tone albums a lot; catchy upbeat songs, sweet harmonies, and some soul-stirring ballads. But as good at those albums were, I think Saadiq’s solo stuff may even be better. I’ve heard terms like “Neo Soul” and “Gospel-delic” used to describe his music, but even those terms only hint at the depth of his songs. Categorizing music is always a tricky if not futile exercise, and Saadiq blends many different styles into his songs to further complicate such a task. There are indeed elements of soul, gospel, pop, and hip-hop in the mix, but the end result is something that sounds fresh and invigorating.

Saadiq’s first solo album, Instant Vintage, in 2002, combined those vintage soul sounds with more contemporary influences. Saadiq also showed off impressive songwriting chops. His following album, Ray Ray, was even more of a step towards capturing the 70s vibe, but to my ears the songs weren’t as strong as those on his debut. In 2008 he roared back with The Way I See It, an exemplary collection of songs that earned several Grammy nominations. Earlier this year he released Stone Rollin’, another solid set of tunes, some funky and some sly. From the opening song, the pounding “Heart Attack,” to the moving final song, “The Answer,” the heartfelt performances never falter. With this album and his previous ones, Raphael Saadiq is offering lively bursts of soul that need to be heard by more people.

Billy Preston

Billy Preston was a keyboard player of great renown. He was dubbed “The Fifth Beatle” due to his musical contributions on classic Beatle albums such as Abbey Road, Let it Be, and The Beatles (The White Album). He also recorded and toured with the Rolling Stones, and played on Sam Cooke’s legendary Night Beat album. In addition to his studio work with many other artists, Preston recorded several solo albums and had huge hits with “Will it Go Round in Circles”, “Nothing from Nothing”, “Outa-Space”, and “Space Race.” His duet with Syreeta, “With You I’m Born Again,” was also a big seller, though by that time he drifting more toward the middle of the pop road and full-on religious fervor.

 

While Preston is most famous for his association with the Beatles and the Stones, and his run of hits in the 1970s, he also recorded some wonderful instrumental albums in the 1960s. I bought one collection last year, Retrospective, that features seventeen fabulously funky tracks, highlighted by Preston’s lively organ playing. The songs on Retrospective were culled from two albums that Preston recorded for the Vee-Jay label in 1965 and 1966 (The Most Exciting Organ Ever and Hymns From the Organ). Among the album’s highlights are covers of “My Girl”, “Shotgun”, “Stop in the Name of Love”, “Downtown”, “Eight Days a Week” and “King of the Road.” And his version of “How Great Thou Art” is transformed into an extended funktified masterpiece. One odd thing about this album, however, is the cover photo that the label chose: its shows Preston sporting his famously full-on afro from the mid-70s, as opposed to the shorter 60s haircut he sported when these songs were actually recorded. By contrast, The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings shows Preston delightfully banging away on his organ at the time of these recordings, when he only 19 years old! Preston, in fact, was quite the child prodigy. In 1962, when he was 16, Preston was hired by Little Richard to be in his touring band. By then Preston had already honed his keyboard skills playing for famous gospel acts such as Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland. And even before he started recording, at the age of twelve, he played the part of the young W.C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues, which also starred Nat King Cole.

 

Among the many classic Apple Records recordings that were remastered and re-released last year(including albums by the Beatles and Badfinger) was Preston’s Encouraging Words. Produced by his Beatle-buddy George Harrison, the album was originally released in 1970. Preston wrote most of the songs on the album, but he also performed covers of Harrison songs such as “My Sweet Lord” and “All Things Must Past.” Unlike his previous all-instrumental albums, this one has Preston singing on all the songs. One review I read called this “one of the best soul albums of all time.” That’s pretty high praise, and while this album is very good, I’m not sure if it ranks quite that high on the list of soul classics.

 

One of the last albums that Preston recorded before he died in 2006 was I Believe in My Soul, an ambitious multi-artist project produced by Joe Henry in 2005. I was amazed to find a copy of this CD when I was in Kuala Lumpur last month. Needless to say, I snatched it out of the bin quickly. Preston shared billing on this album with four other veteran soul acts: Mavis Staples, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, and Ann Peebles. Even with five different artists, the result was a surprisingly strong and cohesive album, highlighted by gems such as Toussaint’s steaming instrumental version of “Turvalon,” a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You,” by Ann Peebles, a cover of the Tom Jans gem “Loving Arms” by Irma Thomas, and Mavis Staples doing the Curtis Mayfield’s classic “Keep on Pushing”. Definitely an album worth looking for.