Terry Callier RIP
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BostonDave
Lunatic Member
Sad news.
Mystic
We're all born mad
This particular "RIP" thread is particularly tough for me.
As a youngster growing up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago I knew about Terry, just as I did all of the luminous musical magicians who surrounded us -- Hubert Sumlin, Yvette Stevens, Curtis Mayfield, Maurice White, Johnny Shines, Buddy Guy, and some guy called "The Wolf". It wasn't until 20-something years later that I came to know Terry personally, after arriving back in Hyde Park, this time 'round as a grad student at the University of Chicago, where the department i'd joined happened to be supported by an IT department that included one Terry Callier, who'd left the music biz in the early or mid 1980s in order to take a day job that could support his daughter and himself. It was a shock to see him in that setting, but i was elated to sit with him as often as possible and retail one another with tales of the persons -- music people and others -- who'd inhabited and dominated our South Side cultural scene from the mid 1960s through the early 199os, which is around the time i (re)arrived in Hyde Park. Extra benefits included enjoying several "master classes" in acoustic folk guitar styles with Terry and, through the good offices of his connections and mediation, selling one of my amplifiers (1960 or 1961 Pro Amp - brown tolex) to one Phil Upchurch, one of Terry's former musical colleagues and still close friend. I was elated to hear/read that @ some point in the late 1990s Terry's albums of the 60s and 70s had fallen into the hands of, and cast a spell over, a young British folk musician named Beth Orton, who proceeded to find Terry, drag him back to the studios, to the stages, out of a UChicago IT department, and to a rekindled musical career. What a story. Terry's funeral is November 3 in Chicago. I am not able to attend. There are plans for a memorial service in London later in the year. Perhaps I'll travel to that service.
Terry, we often discussed what happens after death. If you are able, let me know how it is, brother. Know that we love you and will miss you forever.
-M
As a youngster growing up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago I knew about Terry, just as I did all of the luminous musical magicians who surrounded us -- Hubert Sumlin, Yvette Stevens, Curtis Mayfield, Maurice White, Johnny Shines, Buddy Guy, and some guy called "The Wolf". It wasn't until 20-something years later that I came to know Terry personally, after arriving back in Hyde Park, this time 'round as a grad student at the University of Chicago, where the department i'd joined happened to be supported by an IT department that included one Terry Callier, who'd left the music biz in the early or mid 1980s in order to take a day job that could support his daughter and himself. It was a shock to see him in that setting, but i was elated to sit with him as often as possible and retail one another with tales of the persons -- music people and others -- who'd inhabited and dominated our South Side cultural scene from the mid 1960s through the early 199os, which is around the time i (re)arrived in Hyde Park. Extra benefits included enjoying several "master classes" in acoustic folk guitar styles with Terry and, through the good offices of his connections and mediation, selling one of my amplifiers (1960 or 1961 Pro Amp - brown tolex) to one Phil Upchurch, one of Terry's former musical colleagues and still close friend. I was elated to hear/read that @ some point in the late 1990s Terry's albums of the 60s and 70s had fallen into the hands of, and cast a spell over, a young British folk musician named Beth Orton, who proceeded to find Terry, drag him back to the studios, to the stages, out of a UChicago IT department, and to a rekindled musical career. What a story. Terry's funeral is November 3 in Chicago. I am not able to attend. There are plans for a memorial service in London later in the year. Perhaps I'll travel to that service.
Terry, we often discussed what happens after death. If you are able, let me know how it is, brother. Know that we love you and will miss you forever.
-M
