Norman Connors

Although Norman Connors earned widespread recognition alongside Roy Ayers, George Benson, and Patrice Rushen through major R&B successes, he began his career as a jazz improviser on drums and as a composer. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he grew up in the same neighborhood as Bill Cosby and developed an early fascination with jazz during childhood. While still in elementary school, extensive exposure came through classmates including drummer Lex Humphries and the younger brother of bassist Spanky De Brest, who later joined the Jazz Messengers. By junior high, Connors had started slipping into jazz clubs, where he once substituted for Elvin Jones during a John Coltrane performance. At age thirteen he met his idol Miles Davis for the first time and began emulating the trumpeter’s distinctive dress.

He pursued formal training at Temple University in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Early professional work included engagements with Jackie McLean, Jack McDuff, and Sam Rivers, followed by his first sideman recording when Archie Shepp featured him on the 1967 Impulse! album Magic of Ju-Ju. After touring with Pharoah Sanders and contributing to several of his recordings, Connors joined Buddah’s Cobblestone imprint in 1972, issuing his debut leader date Dance of Magic and the subsequent Dark of Light. Additional jazz-focused sessions appeared on Cobblestone and Buddah before he shifted primary attention to R&B in 1975 with Saturday Night Special, which contained the number-ten soul single “Valentine Love.”

Throughout the remainder of the 1970s he prominently showcased vocalists such as Michael Henderson, Jean Carn, and the late Phyllis Hyman while achieving further R&B chart entries including “We Both Need Each Other,” “Once I’ve Been There,” and the ballad “You Are My Starship.” After signing with Arista in 1977, Connors experienced reduced visibility during the 1980s, yet returned in the 1990s via Motown’s MoJazz label, where he balanced urban contemporary material with crossover projects. Into the twenty-first century he continued along comparable lines, releasing Eternity on Starship Records in 2000 and Star Power on Shanachie Records in 2009.