This artist and album first came to my attention when, noseying at a then colleague’s record collection, I spotted a cover with an extremely beautiful and striking naked woman smoking a cigarette, and looking wistful in an armchair.

Born in Chicago in 1945, a musician from the tender age of 3 and a childhood friend of Curtis Mayfield, Callier released his first single in 1962 with his debut LP following some time later in 1968. Thereafter, he earned money playing gigs and writing songs as part of a salaried group of songwriters for Chicago’s renowned blues label, Chess.

In 1968, a song written by Callier (The Love We Had (Stays On My Mind)) was recorded by The Dells and produced by Charles Stepney, and was a big hit. This prompted Chess to upgrade Callier, awarding him a recording contract of his own with Cadet, one of their subsidiary labels.

The Callier/Stepney axis proved a prolific and productive one, with three LPs recorded between 1972 and 1973. What Color Of Love is the second in the trilogy, sandwiched between Occasional Rain and I Just Can’t Help Myself. Each of them were critically acclaimed but, without any sort of accompanying commercial success, saw Callier dropped from the label.

It appeared as if Elektra Records had come to Callier’s rescue by signing him in 1977, but despite achieving a breakthrough hit single in 1979 (Sign Of The Times), he was soon dropped again. This second rejection, coinciding as it did with a split from his wife and a need to provide a steady income in order to provide for his young daughter, steered him into accepting a job as a computer programmer at the University of Chicago. The one time child prodigy was forced to reduce his music to little more than a spare time hobby.

Over a decade later, Callier was amazed to discover that he had become a doyen of the British acid jazz and jazz soul scenes and was invited to play a string of shows to a new and devoted set of younger followers in London. Unfortunately, his clandestine second job did not meet the approval of his University of Chicago employers, who duly sacked him.

Consequently, Callier had little option but to try give his music career another go. Starting with a number of collaborations with Beth Orton in the late 90s, Callier then went on to release 6 albums over the next 10 years as well as further collaborations with both Paul Weller and Massive Attack, which included a top 20 hit.

Around the time of his collaboration with Massive Attack, I was lucky enough to see him play when he supported them as they headlined the O2 Wireless Festival at Harewood House in 2006, and again at The Lowry in Salford in 2009. He tragically succumbed to throat cancer in 2012, aged just 67 years old.