Belated in part because I only found out the guy died today, and partly because… well conventional wisdom dictates that you’ll feel like a bit of an idiot trying to write an obituary for someone with whose life & work you’re largely unfamiliar.

The name ‘Terry Callier’ never meant much to me, really. I was aware of it, but… y’know, he just seemed like one of those guys who was always wowing investment bankers at the London Jazz Festival or whatever. Giles Peterson. The Barbican. Polite. Establishment. Everything I’d counted as aesthetic (if not necessarily musical) anathema for so long.

Last year though, a dude who came round to fix my freezer saw a guitar in my flat, started talking to me about ‘the blues’, and recommended I should check out some Terry Callier… "his early stuff, y’know”. He seemed like the kind of guy whose advice you might want to follow, so I dutifully hit up youtube to give it a go, and indeed, was much impressed.

A *slow burn* is what Mr. Callier always seems to have gone for, and if that lack of friction may have seem him cross paths with the dreaded “soul music for the soulless” demographic, well, that’s unfortunate, but I’d still rather listen to this 1964 rendition of ‘The Drifter’ than, y’know… most other things.

Labels: deathblog, Terry Callier