I remember
where I was when I first heard this: the local round-the-way record store. The carpet was checkered with the maytag logo in bittersweet on brown (harkening back to the store’s past life). There we stood in a communal experience that began with the shop owner saying, “You’ve got to hear this record”. We stood waiting. Waiting melted away to awe. Nine minutes later we knew life was a bit different…just wait for the progression of the track. It blossoms and eventually bursts.
“Dancing Girl” is from the album, “What Color is Love” (Cadet, 1973). A great record for a chilled autumn day.
Terry Callier was a childhood friend of Curtis Mayfield and co-wrote numerous Chicago Records for artists as diverse as the Soulful Strings, The Dells, and Garland Green. He spent much of the eighties and nineties as a single father, raising his daughter, Sundiata, and working at the University of Chicago.
He returned to recording in the late nineties to critical acclaim, and released “Hidden Conversations” (his fifth album in 10 years) this year. It features Massive Attack.
Jive on…. Jive on.
darkjive.com 
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
good music. wish i had known about this guy sooner. great find
November 9th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I could have written these words myself. I was in this record dealers attic in 1992 flicking through hundreds of dusty old LPs not knowing one title from another let alone how the hell I was ever going to choose from (before the web, blogs and sound samples of course) Then I saw that cover. It literally arrested me on the spot. I asked the dealer, a guy wisely guy called Mark Wimmers, “Hey is the music as beautuful as the cover?” He smiled wryly and said “No,…more beautiful”
thanks
Dante
The word is getting around at last: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcDgRgra-I0&feature=related
November 12th, 2009 at 11:15 am
thanks for the comment and the link, Dante. That album cover is amazing, isn’t it…
November 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Yes it’s a stunning cover for a stunning record. She looks so wistful….goes so well with the question in the title. I liked it in your intro when you said that 9 minutes on, as the track drew to a close, it seemed as if life was a little different That’s how I felt: kinda exhausted and spellbound. This track has been with me ever since, through good times and bad….I haven’t yet come across another piece of music that can quite transport me to the same plane.