| The David Nathan Pages |
| PHYLLIS HYMAN: THIS LADY'S GOT STAR KARMA March 1977, In person interview conducted by David Nathan in New York City at Phyllis Hyman's apartment on W. 55th St. " The buzz about Phyllis Hyman started amongst the superstar elite. It hasn’t taken long for the word to get around…" That was the sub-heading for the June 1977 article, the first British feature on Phyllis Hyman and the first of many interviews that David Nathan would conduct over almost fifteen years with the much-loved singer, then one of David's Manhattan neighbors... (c) 2007, David Nathan/SCI Enterprises, All rights reserved |
THE PROVERBIAL word is out! Whenever you hear that buzz amongst entertainers and industry folk about a ‘new discovery’ and
wherever you go, the same name keeps cropping up in the conversation, then you know it’s about to happen to someone.
That someone, in this instance, happens to be the lovely Ms Phyllis Hyman.
Phyllis was subject of those ‘word of mouth’ recommendations from all and sundry as a result of her success via her work with Norman
Connars – it was her vocals on the old Stylistics’ hit, “Betcha By Golly Wow” that help catapult the “You Are My Starship” album into the
best sellers in the States for Mr. Connors – and it was the combination of Phyllis and Michael Henderson on “We Both Need Each Other”
which gave the album another boost when it was released as a single during 1976.
In addition, Phyllis enjoyed her own success with a single, “Baby (I’m Gonna Love You)” released last year on the Desert Moon label –
which made some progress on the r&b listings.
That was all in the preparation of the acceptance she’s getting right now for her own debut album on Buddah Records which is taking
off all across the country, highlighted by the beautiful “Loving You – Loosing You” from the pen of none other than Thom Bell.
We tracked the busy lady down in her midtown Manhattan apartment – she actually lives one block away from Blues & Soul!
“I’ve been singing since I was a young girl,” the charming lady relates. “You know, singing in church, in colleges. I’m from Pittsburgh
and when I decided it was time to make my career seriously, I realized that there wasn’t exactly a surplus of work in my hometown!”
When the opportunity presented for Phyllis to go down to Miami, Florida, she took it “and spent about three years there, working in and
around town. In 1975, in fact, I put my own group together and we decided it was time to make a move. So we packed our thing and
moved to New York.”
With husband Larry Alexander (a talented gentleman in his own right – having worked with both B.T. Express and Brass Construction
and now one half of Tornader, currently making a lot of sales noise on Polydor ) managing and directing Ms. Hyman’s career with her.
Phyllis soon found herself working.
“It’s destiny or karma or whatever you want to call it but we started working straight away at Rust Brown’s Restaurant – doing
contemporary material, originals, album cuts that no one knew! I guess we were there for about one and a half months and a whole lot of
things came out of it. Norman (Connors) stopped by and checked me out and asked me work with him. The result, of course, was the
three tracks on the ‘Starship’ album plus I went on the road with Norman for a short time, which gave me exposure to a lot of major
markets. “We’re feeling the impact of that now – people are aware of me from having seen me perform with Norman and it’s really
helped my album a great deal”...
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| PHYLLIS HYMAN 1977 Interview (PH-77-2007) Conducted by David Nathan, (c) 2007, David Nathan/SCI Enterprises |
