Watch Chicago legend Terry Callier perform classics including “What Color is Love” and “Dancing Girl.”

An eternal favorite here at In Sheep’s Clothing HQ, Terry Callier aka “Jazz’s Folk Mystic” seemed destined to play a significant role in the 1970s soul scene. Growing up in Chicago’s north side, he was childhood friends with Curtis Mayfield, Major Lance and Jerry Butler, singing in doo-wop groups through his late teens. He penned tracks for Minnie Riperton in her Rotary Connection days and a few for the extremely popular vocal group the Dells. 

Instead of jumping straight into the vast sea of soul music, though, his debut album was a folk record — albeit one with strange time signatures, the odd use of two basses and informed by the music of John Coltrane. He would later expand this “new folk” style into psychedelic sounds, rhythm and blues, Northern soul and powerful politically inspired vocal jazz.

The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier included this premonition in the liner notes:

“About Mr. Callier… Well, he seems himself as a shade more musician than singer, all artist. The giants, those few singers who have influenced the direction of singing, and the titans who defined it, although few of them have been endowed with spectacular voices of the crystal shattering variety, all had a talent, no a power, in common… That is the magic that communicates; Art, to use a hackneyed expression; The Power, and Terry’s got it.”

For whatever reason, Callier would never actually achieve mainstream success although he maintained a deep cult following throughout his career. In the late 1980s, British DJs discovered his old recordings and began to play his songs in clubs. A Callier revival would then ensue, leading to collaborations with Massive Attack and Beth Orton.

In his later years, Callier’s music often dealt with political issues. In the late 1990s Terry began another comeback to recorded music, releasing the album Timepeace in 1998, which won the United Nations’ Time For Peace award for outstanding artistic achievement contributing to world peace.

The above performance from 2003 opens with these still poignant lyrics from his song “Fix the Blame”:

“Blame the children, blame the young / we won’t have to bite our tongue / Blame the migrant workers too – they’re paid too much for what they do / But please don’t blame our subsidies or money we send overseas / And if you want to keep our trust, blame anyone who’s not like us”