Alex Henderson

Phyllis Hyman
Phyllis Hyman

If one had to pinpoint the musician who did the most to pave the way for the late Phyllis Hyman’s solo career, it would be Norman Connors. The Philadelphia-born jazz drummer turned R&B producer gave Hyman, a native of Pittsburgh, a major break when, in 1976, he hired her for parts of his popular You Are My Starship album. Connors featured Hyman on two singles: “We Both Need Each Other” (a male/female vocal duet with Michael Henderson) and an inspired remake of the Thom Bell/Linda Creed ballad “Betcha By Golly Wow,” which had been a major hit for the Stylistics’ in 1972. Both singles became favorites in the quiet storm market, leading to a solo contract with Buddah Records and the release of Hyman’s self-titled debut solo album in 1977.

Produced by Larry Alexander (Hyman’s husband at the time and the younger brother of Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander), John Davis, Jerry Peters and Sandy Torano, Phyllis Hyman picks up where her work with Connors left off and has a definite quiet storm orientation. Ballads and romantic slow jams are a high priority on this album, and Hyman brings considerable quiet storm appeal to silky offerings such as “Was Yesterday Such a Long time Ago?,” “The Night Bird Gets the Love” and “Beautiful Man of Mine.” Phyllis Hyman takes a more danceable turn with the energetic “Deliver the Love,” but overall, Hyman’s solo debut is a laid-back mood album.

Phyllis Hyman didn’t contain any blockbuster hits, although the single “Loving You, Losing You” reached #32 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the United States—and “No One Can Love You More” (a Skip Scarborough ballad),” made it to #58 on that chart. Nonetheless, this album has a very good reputation among Hyman’s hardcore fans. FunkytownGrooves’ expanded 2015 edition of Phyllis Hyman contains six bonus tracks, which range from “Betcha By Golly Wow” to “Baby (I’m Gonna Love You)”—a 1976 single that wasn’t included on this album’s original LP configuration—to the single versions of “No One Can Love You More” and “Loving You, Losing You.”

Given the success Hyman had enjoyed with “Betcha By Golly Wow,” it isn’t surprising that she embraces two more Bell songs on this album: “Loving You, Losing You” and “I Don’t Want to Lose You,” which he co-wrote with the late Linda Creed (who was only 37 when she died of breast cancer in 1986). In the 1970s, Bell and Creed were one of Philly soul’s most prolific songwriting teams—and their songs served Hyman well.

Although Phyllis Hyman is not jazz per se, a long list of skillful jazz musicians accompany her on this album—including saxophonist Gary Bartz, trumpeters Virgil Jones and Cecil Bridgewater, guitarist Hiram Bullock, keyboardist Onaje Allan Gumbs and drummer Harvey Mason. Also on board is pianist/keyboardist and songwriter Hubert Eaves III, who is best known for comprising half of the 1980s funk/dance duo D-Train but has a history of performing instrumental jazz as well (in 1973, Eaves turned down a chance to join the band of the great alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley because he was busy playing in Bartz’ band). Eaves wrote one of the songs on this album: “Children of the World,” which he revisited with D-Train in 1983 and is planning to revisit once again on a forthcoming solo project.

Interviewed in January 2015, Eaves (huberteavesiii.com) fondly remembered playing with Hyman on You Are My Starship and on this album not long after that. “Norman Connors was always good at finding talent,” Eaves recalls. “We all knew that about him. He was a visionary. You knew that by the singers that he picked for his albums: Michael Henderson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Phyllis Hyman, Jean Carn. All of them went on to do other things. Norman and Phyllis had a nice run.”

Eaves continues: “When I first met Phyllis, I hadn’t heard her sing. I was wondering how talented she really was, and I wasn’t disappointed.”

Eaves remembered that even though “Children of the World” was his song, he was happy to let Hyman perform it the way she felt it needed to be performed. “Once I heard Phyllis’ voice on ‘Children of the World,’ I was completely blown away because I had not imagined that the song could take that kind of a turn,” Eaves asserts. “Vocally, she added a lot to it. That was not my production—when Phyllis recorded that album, I was new—and I kind of laid back and let her husband, Larry Alexander, produce it. But Phyllis just brought things out of the song that I had not thought about.”

When Eaves revisited “Children for the World” with D-Train six years later, he took much more of a hands-on approach than he took on Hyman’s version. “I wanted to bring the song out again and do it in the style of D-Train,” Eaves explains. “At that point, I was using a lot of keyboards. I had become more confident as a producer and a writer, and with D-Train, I found another way to do it than what Phyllis did. And I plan to do it another way on the solo project I have coming up. Even though ‘Children of the World’ has been on a D-Train record and has been on a Phyllis Hyman record, there are still people who haven’t heard it. And when I have a song that I really believe in, I want to keep pushing it forward.”

Hyman was about a week away from her 46^th birthday when, tragically, she committed suicide by overdosing on pills on June 30, 1995. Hyman’s death was a major loss for the music world, but she left behind a rich catalogue that quiet storm enthusiasts continue to treasure—and that includes this debut solo album from 1977.

“Who knew 38 years ago that we’d still be talking about Phyllis Hyman’s first album in 2015?,” Eaves comments. “It’s a good thing to be able to talk about somebody as lovely, as talented and as musical as Phyllis Hyman.”

—Alex Henderson, February 2015

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.