Customer Reviews

Call Me

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This CD is truly one of a kind. I initially purchased the "album" in the early 1980's. I was truly amazed. I'm glad to know that you can no purchase this kind of music on CD. It is a "must have" for true fans of good music!!

Bill Wolfer was a keyboard player/producer who was one of the few white artists on Dick Griffey's SOLAR label. This "Best of" is essentially the rerelease of WOLF, Wolfer's only album for the label. The music presented here is essentially generic smooth jazzy r&b similar to what was featured on fellow keyboardist Jeff Lorber's albums during the early to mid 80s. Guest vocalist and then-Motown recording artist Finis Henderson shines on "Call Me", while Jon Gibson apes Stevie Wonder a little too much on "So Shy" and "Wake Up", and Crystal Blake's lovely vocals can't save the sappy "Soaring".

The rest of the album consists of Wolfer tossing off wallpaper instrumentals as "Window On A Dream" and "Nobody Knows", or dabbling in uptempo vocoder exercises ("Camouflage" and a remake of the r&b classic "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"). "Papa" and the closer "Pop Quiz" are really the only interesting cuts on this album.

A pre-Thriller Michael Jackson actually performed background vocal duties on "So Shy" and Wolf's only Billboard hit "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" (#55 POP, #47 R&B), while Stevie Wonder himself contributed a harmonica solo on "Soaring".

After this album flopped, Bill Wolfer went on to produce the Shalamar hit "Dancing In The Sheets" and the first Motown solo album by former Prince playmate Vanity. Currently he is part of world music group called Mamborama.