NORMAN CONNORS – YOU ARE MY STARSHIP/ROMANTIC JOURNEY
Norman Connors was born in Philadelphia in 1948. He became interested in jazz music by listening to MIles Davis, studied percussion and became a top drummer. He recorded albums with Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. His first 2 albums as a leader from Cobblestone were Jazz fusion. After signing for Buddah in 1973, he started featuring emerging vocalists on his albums, first Dee Dee Bridgewater then Jean Carn and bassist Michael Henderson.

 On 'You Are my Starship' from 1976 he introduced the incredible Phyllis Hyman to the world. In fact throughout his career Norman has 'discovered' many great vocalists. He was also always surrounded by many of the top musicians of the time, the line ups on both of these albums is staggering.

‘You Are My Starship’ was to become his biggest seller accredited with Platinum status and included the Grammy nominated  top 5 R&B / Top 30 hit title track featuring Henderson's deep soulful voice.  Michael also wrote and duets with Phyllis on the great ballad 'We Both Need Each Other’. She features on the cover of the Stylistics classic Philly hit 'Betcha by Golly Wow' and makes it her own. .Phyllis gets a rare chance to add a scat vocal on the jazzier 'Just Imagine' an under played jazz dancer, which also has a nice sax solo from Gary Bartz.   Gary plays a more significant role on the cover of Pharoah Sanders/Leon Thomas classic 'The Creator Has A Masterplan', which Norman would record again a couple of years later on his Arista debut 'This Is Your Life'.

The Romantic Journey album from 1977 was his last for Buddah and features Prince Phillip Mitchell on vocals on the great string laden modern soul dancer 'Once I've been There' a fantastic slab of up-tempo soul. Norman covers another Stylistics (Thom Bell/Linda Creed) classic 'You Are Everything' this time featuring Eleanor Mills on vocals. The epic title track starts off slow and atmospheric and then builds into an up-tempo jazz rock groove. 'Thembi' is another cover of a classic Pharoah track.

Both of these albums were produced by Skip Drinkwater (who produced Eddie Henderson’s albums from the same period covered by our Anthology) along with Jerry Schoenbaum.

Norman became an influential artist and producer throughout the 70’s until the mid 80’s 
Producing artists as diverse as Pharoah Sanders, Al Johnson, Aquarian Dream and Starship Orchestra. He is still recording today ‘Star Power’ being yet another comeback album from last year.

Laurence Prangell
June 2010

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