Norman Connors
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Norman Connors (born March 1, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz drummer.
Connors became interested in jazz as a child, and began playing drums early, once sitting in for Elvin Jones at a John Coltrane performance he attended while in middle school. Connors studied music at Temple University and Juilliard; his first recording was on Archie Shepp's 1967 release, Magic of JuJu. He played with Pharaoh Sanders for the next few years until signing with Cobblestone Records in 1972 and releasing his first record as a bandleader. In the mid-1970s, Connors began focusing more on R&B tunes, and had several US hits with songs featuring vocalists such as Michael Henderson, Jean Carn, and Phyllis Hyman. The most successful of these was "You Are My Starship". His more recent work has seen him operating more in the vein of smooth jazz and urban crossover music.
Discography
- Dance of Magic (Cobblestone Records, 1973)
- Dark of Light (Buddah Records, 1973)
- Love from the Sun (Buddah, 1974)
- Slewfoot (Buddah, 1975)
- Saturday Night Special (Buddah, 1976)
- Romantic Journey (Buddah, 1977)
- You Are My Starship (Buddah, 1977)
- This Is Your Life (Buddah, 1978)
- Invitation (Buddah, 1979)
- Take it to the Limit (Arista Records, 1980)
- Mr. C (Arista, 1981)
- Passion (Capitol Records, 1988)
- Remember Who You Are (Motown Records, 1993)
- Aquarian Dream (Kama Sutra Records, 1995)
- Insert B (The Real Deal) / Nobody Knows - Gurus -Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality (Chrysalis, 1995)
- Easy Living (Motown, 1996)
- Eternity (Starship Records, 2000)
