Alex Henderson

Norman Connors   "Saturday Night Special"

1975 marked an important turning point in the career of Norman Connors. Prior to that, the Philadelphia-born drummer/producer was widely regarded as a jazz instrumentalist. His early pre-Saturday Night Special albums—Dance of Magic in 1972, Dark of Light in 1973, Love from the Sun and Slewfoot in 1974—were jazz-oriented, and he had been employed as a sideman on albums by jazz saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Sam Rivers and Archie Shepp. Certainly, the fact that Connors was from Philly (where he was born on March 1, 1947) enhanced his credibility in the jazz world. Philly, after all, has long been a hotbed of jazz activity and has been home to John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Jimmy Smith, McCoy Tyner, the Heath Brothers, Charles Earland, Grover Washington, Jr. and countless other jazz heavyweights. But Philly is not only famous for jazz—it is also famous for R&B. In addition to giving the world so many jazz icons, Philly was the city that Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff (the legendary songwriter/producers who founded Philadelphia International Records), Patti LaBelle, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the Intruders, the Stylistics, the Delfonics, Blue Magic, the Moments and the Three Degrees called home. And in 1975, Connors embraced the R&B side of his Philadelphia upbringing with a hit single titled “Valentine Love,” which brought him an abundance of new fans who didn’t necessarily know about his jazz background.

“Valentine Love,” the soul/quiet storm gem that made 1975’s Saturday Night Special (originally released on LP by Buddah Records) his best-selling album up to that point, was not the first time he had worked with singers. Connors had featured singers on some of his previous albums, but he did so in a jazz context. “Valentine Love,” a romantic male/female duet boasting lead vocals by Michael Henderson and Jean Carn, was straight-up R&B and had a strong Stevie Wonder influence.

Henderson and Carn both had jazz credentials in 1975. While Henderson had played electric bass on some of the great fusion albums that trumpeter Miles Davis recorded in the early 1970s (including A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Live-Evil and On the Corner, among others), Carn had performed both jazz and soul with her husband and musical partner, keyboardist Doug Carn. In fact, she was the last vocalist to perform with the great bandleader/composer Duke Ellington before his death in 1974. Yet on “Valentine Love,” which Henderson wrote, Connors used the two of them for soul purposes rather than jazz purposes—and R&B fans liked what they heard. “Valentine Love” made it to #10 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart (or as it was called back in 1975, Billboard’s soul singles chart).

The success of “Valentine Love” marked the beginning of Connors’ transition from jazz instrumentalist to R&B producer. And the title track, which features Carn, is a funk smoker that was written by guitarist Reggie Lucas (who, like Connors and Henderson, had a jazz background but enjoyed his greatest exposure in R&B). The 7” single versions of “Valentine Love” and the title song are offered as bonus tracks on FunkyTownGrooves’ expanded 2013 edition of Saturday Night Special.

Plenty of accomplished jazz musicians join Connors on Saturday Night Special, including Herbie Hancock on piano, Gary Bartz on alto and soprano saxophone, the late Carter Jefferson on tenor and soprano saxophone, Buster Williams on acoustic bass, Lee Ritenour on electric guitar, Onaje Allan Gumbs on acoustic piano and electric keyboards and John Blake on violin. And Saturday Night Special has plenty of jazz—some of it instrumental, some of it boasting Jean Carn on lead vocals. “Akia” (a fusion/jazz-funk smoker by keyboardist Kevin Nance) and the driving “Kwasi” (which Connors co-wrote with Gumbs) are strictly instrumental, but on a lush arrangement of Hancock’s post-bop standard “Maiden Voyage,” Carn provides ethereal, wordless scat-singing. Carn, however, has memorable lyrics to work with on the haunting “Skin Diver” and the Antonio Carlos Jobim standard “Dindi.” Jobim, of course, is one of the most famous Brazilian musicians of all time. Often exalted as “The George Gershwin of Brazil,” the late composer/pianist wrote or co-wrote “The Girl from Ipanema” (or “La Garota de Ipanema” in Portuguese), “Wave,” “Desafinado,” “Corcovado” and countless other bossa nova classics that became standards in Brazil as well as the United States and Europe. And Carn has no problem giving “Dindi” the warmth and sensitivity it deserves. “Dindi,” it should be noted, has one set of lyrics in Portuguese and another in English; Carn performs the English lyrics. Clearly, Carn triumphs as both a jazz vocalist and an R&B vocalist on Saturday Night Special.

Another funkster with jazz credentials who Connors employs on Saturday Night Special is keyboardist Hubert Eaves III, who went on to play with Lucas in percussionist James Mtume’s band Mtume in the late 1970s but is best known for co-leading the group D-Train with singer James “D-Train” Williams. Eaves’ contributions to Saturday Night Special preceded 1982’s “You’re the One for Me,” the first major D-Train hit, by seven years.

After Saturday Night Special, Connors didn’t abandon jazz altogether but made R&B his main focus. And his next album, 1976’s You Are My Starship, made him even more famous among soul and quiet storm fans. That album’s title track (a haunting ballad that was written by Henderson and featured him on lead vocals) became Connors’ biggest hit ever and climbed to #4 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. Two other singles from You Are My Starship also did their part to increase Connors’ popularity among R&B fans: Henderson’s “We Both Need Each Other” (a male/female vocal duet featuring Henderson and the late Philadelphia native Phyllis Hyman) and an inspired cover of Linda Creed & Thom Bell’s Philly soul ballad “Betcha By Golly Wow.” The latter was a big hit for the Stylistics in 1972, and Connors’ remake (which boasted Hyman on lead vocals) is also held in high regard among quiet storm aficionados.

Connors, now 66, celebrated his 28^th birthday in 1975. And with the success of Saturday Night Special and its “Valentine Love” single, the Philadelphian gave himself a very nice birthday present.

—Alex Henderson, August 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, AlterNet, Salon.com, 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.