Norman Connors (born March 1, 1947) – Once I've Been There (1977)
This phenomenal disco funk jam from Connors' Romantic Journey LP was written and featured vocals by the great singer/songwriter Prince Phillip Mitchell.
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The multi-talented producer, songwriter, and drummer Norman Connors played with Pharoah Sanders in the late sixties before leading his own jazz bands. In the mid-70s, he collaborated with many R&B artists on his classic 70s solo albums that successfully blended jazz, soul, funk, and disco.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Connors started playing drums at a young age. He went to see John Coltrane perform while in middle school and ended up sitting in for Elvin Jones. He attended college at Temple University and continued studying music at Juilliard in New York City.
Connors joined Pharoah Sanders’ band and played with him for several years in the late sixties. He then released four solo jazz LP’s on Buddah Records’ Cobblestone jazz subsidiary and the Buddah label itself.
In the mid-70s, Connors became Buddah’s A&R manager. He proceeded to collaborate with a wide range of R&B artists of the day while releasing several acclaimed solo albums, the most well known being You Are My Starship (1976), which went gold and hit #5 on the R&B album charts. The title track featured Michael Henderson on vocals. Other artists who appeared on Connors’ records included Prince Phillip Mitchell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jean Carn, Eleanor Mills, and Phyllis Hyman.
The phenomenal disco funk jam “Once I've Been There” from Connors' Romantic Journey LP (1977) was written by and featured the great singer/songwriter Prince Phillip Mitchell on vocals.
“Once I've Been There” was produced by Skip Drinkwater and arranged by Jerry Peters. Besides Connors on drums and percussion, it featured Gary Bartz on alto sax. Double A-side, DJ-only 12” promos was issued, although the track was never commercially available on 12-inch vinyl until it was re-issued in 2017 by Expansion Records.
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