A Shining Star Eclipsed (4)

Callier's first album for Cadet, Occasional Rain (1972), saw a successful marriage of his simplistic folk style of writing with just guitar and vocals, and Stepney's grand orchestral vision. Stepney keeps the arrangements suitable for the songs. His simplistic arrangement on the uptempo Ordinary Joe, a song that has in more recent years become Callier's very appropriate anthem. At times showing considerable restraint as with the title song, where Callier is mainly accompanied by the unmistakible sound of Minnie Riperton, magically creating raindrops with her voice. (This would be one of her last collaboration's with Stepney before leaving Chicago with her husband for the warmer climes of California, where she recorded with Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder who produced her first solo album in 5 years Perfect Angel (1974).) The subtlety Stepney used kept Callier in the forefront of the recording, his string arrangements used more for dramatic purposes.

An idea used even more effectively on the opening song of Callier's next and possibly finest album, What Color Is Love (1973). The opening song Dancing Girl begins softly, with Callier's voice and his guitar, but then quickens and the production becomes far more extravagant as he takes us deeper into the chilling world of a prostitute. Elsewhere Terry reflects on love with tender ballads like the title song, Just As Long As We're In Love and I'd Rather Be With You. You Goin' To Miss Your Candyman with its strong bass line ever driving the song forward becomes urban blues of an epic nature as the arrangement builds. Later it was utilised by Urban Species on their collaboration with French rapper MC Solaar Listen (Just Listen). Callier even has the courage to omit the lyrics, always an important element of his music from his folk singer roots, on the instrumental You Don't Care.

1974's I Just Can't Help Myself album brought a warmer sound, as Callier and his longtime songwriting collaborator Larry Wade joined Stepney in the role of producer. Callier pursues a more soulful sound, creating beautiful mid-tempo classics like (I Just Can't Help Myself) I Don't Want Nobody Else and Gotta Get Closer To You with lush strings and tight harmonies. Though Stepney shares the arrangement chores with Richard Evans and Bob Schiff his work still shines out as truly inventive. Especially on the jazzy Can't Catch The Trane, where Callier's scat fades out as a sax solo fades in. All three albums, though not commercially successful, stand as particularly strong sets. Stepney's production always sympathetic to Callier's songs, his arrangements enhance rather than dominate. Stepney's greatest success would come from reuniting with an old friend who shared a history at Chess Records, Maurice White.

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