Alex Henderson

Norman Connors

Love From the Sun/Slewfoot



It’s no exaggeration to say that Miles Davis sent shock waves through the jazz world with his 1969 recordings In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, both of which combined the freedom and spontaneity of jazz with the immediacy of rock, soul and funk. The trailblazing trumpeter wasn’t the first or the only jazz improviser to take notice of Motown Records, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles or the Doors, but the way he did it was so overt, so in-your-face, so bold that many jazz improvisers simply didn’t know what to make of his new fusion-oriented direction. Other jazz musicians, however, welcomed the challenge of fusion. One of them was drummer Norman Connors.

Born in Philadelphia on March 1, 1947, Connors grew up in a city that took its jazz seriously: John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith (who wrote the book on soul-jazz organ playing), Charles Earland, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Pat Martino, Shirley Scott, Ray Bryant, Philly Joe Jones and the Heath Brothers were among the countless jazz heavyweights who had a Philly connection. Connors was only 20 when tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp (who was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and raised in Philly) featured him on his 1967 session The Magic of Ju-Ju, and in the early 1970s, a young Connors was employed as a sideman on albums by tenor saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Sam Rivers. It was also in the early 1970s that he began recording as a leader. Dance of Magic, Connors’ first album as a leader, came in 1972, followed by Dark of Light and Love from the Sun in 1973 and Slewfoot in 1974. 

This reissue unites two of those jazz-oriented albums, Love from the Sun and Slewfoot (both produced by Skip Drinkwater and originally released on Buddah Records) back to back on the same CD. Listeners who associate Connors primarily with R&B vocal hits such as 1975’s “Valentine Love,” 1976’s “You Are My Starship” and 1977’s “Once I’ve Been There” are in for a surprise: both Love From the Sun and Slewfoot blend post-bop influences like Coltrane, Sanders, Tyner and Wayne Shorter with funk and rock elements and use electric instruments extensively. And on both albums, it is evident that listening to Miles Davis’ electric breakthroughs had a positive effect on Connors: Love From the Sun and Slewfoot both demonstrate that exciting things can happen when jazz improvisation meets rock, soul and funk.

Love From the Sun unites Connors with an impressive lineup that boasts, among others, Eddie Henderson on trumpet and flugelhorn, Herbie Hancock on electric keyboards, Hubert Laws on flute, Gary Bartz on alto and soprano saxophone, Carlos Garnett on soprano saxophone and Buster Williams on bass. From Hancock’s “Revelation” to arranger Elmer Gibson’s “Kumakucha (The Sun Has Risen)” to two pieces by Garnett (“Carlos II” and “Holy Waters”), a very spiritual feeling permeates Love From the Sun. Equally spiritual is Connors’ passionately rhythmic “Drums Around the World,” which gives him a chance to stretch out on his drums and celebrate the role percussion plays in African, Latin and Caribbean music.  

Although Love From the Sun is predominantly instrumental, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater is featured on “Holy Waters” and the title track (written by Richard Clay). Connors used vocalists extensively on his R&B-dominated albums of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but on Love From the Sun, Bridgewater is employed strictly as a jazz vocalist and draws on the influence of Sarah Vaughan, Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter.

Some of the improvisers who join Connors on Love from the Sun are heard on Slewfoot as well, including Henderson, Bartz, Laws and Garnett. But the Slewfoot cast also boasts Lonnie Liston Smith (not to be confused with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith) on acoustic piano and electric keyboards, Ron Carter on acoustic and electric bass, Anthony Jackson on electric bass, Reggie Lucas on electric guitar, and Brazilian icon Dom um Romão on percussion. And the singer that Connors sometimes features on Slewfoot isn’t Bridgewater, but the equally expressive Jean Carn. Of course, Connors gave Carn some valuable exposure when he teamed her up with singer Michael Henderson in 1975 for a male/female vocal duet on the Stevie Wonder-influenced single “Valentine Love” (which became a #10 R&B hit in Billboard and marked the beginning of his transition from jazz instrumentalist to soul star). But when Connors features Carn on Garnett’s “Mother of the Future” and Coltrane’s “Welcome,” he is clearly using her in an improvisatory jazz context.

Instrumentals, however, dominate Slewfoot, and they range from Henderson’s mysterious, Miles Davis-influenced “Dreams” to Clay’s funky, Crusaders-like “Back on the Street.” And listeners who like their jazz with a lot of rock and funk muscle can’t go wrong with Connors’ “Jump Street,” the title track (written by Lucas and Jackson) or Gibson’s “Chuka.” The latter employs Hubert Eaves III on keyboards, and if that name sounds familiar to lovers of 1980s funk, it is because Eaves was half of the New York City duo D-Train. Together, Eaves and singer James “D-Train” Williams enjoyed some major hits in the 1980s, including “You’re the One for Me,” “Something’s on Your Mind” and “Keep On.” But Eaves was capable of playing jazz as well, and his appearance on “Chuka” pre-dates D-Train’s first hit by eight years.

With 1975’s Saturday Night Special (the album that included “Valentine Love”), Connors began making great inroads in the R&B market—and with the album that came right after that, 1976’s You Are My Starship, he acquired even more fans who knew him mainly for vocal-oriented R&B rather than instrumental jazz. Many of the soul and quiet storm aficionados who got hip to Connors in 1976, 1977 or 1978 didn’t necessarily know about Love From the Sun or Slewfoot. And if they acquired either album thinking that it would sound like You Are My Starship or 1977’s Romantic Journey, they were surprised to find out that instrumental jazz was the main ingredient.

One should never forget that Connors’ roots were jazz, and those jazz roots are alive and well on Love From the Sun and Slewfoot.

—Alex Henderson, August 2013

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