Master drummer/producer Norman Connors has been away from the recording scene for almost six years now but out of studio doesn't mean out work. The man who first brought the likes of Phyllis Hyman, Michael Henderson and Glenn Jones to public attention vai his mid-Seventies albums for Arista and Buddah is quick to point out that he's been performing pretty consistently throughout that time.

"I Must Not Be Kinky" is the intriguing title of a new four track mini album from Tina Harris, a white R&B singer who has been working in and around the Los Angeles area for a few years. The mini album is released on Shanachie Records and includes one song produced by Lenny White and another two written by Bus Boys leader Kevin O'Neal.

Pieces Of A Dream is emerging as a highly pertinent tag for the supremely talented group of musicians who create music under that banner.

For the generation of black music fans of the last decade, it has been a personal pleasure to watch this band emerge and develop 'before our very eyes', so to speak.

They came together as teenagers under the guiding hand of mentor Grover Washington Jr. (probably as big an inspiration as any for the enthusiast who's spread his wings wider than the commercial edge of the genre), and started playing a form of jazz that introduced all the musical aspects this generation has enjoyed into one sound. Pieces Of A Dream almost personified what — in this country at least — was considered best in black music, and they became as a mirror for the music's followers.

THE timing certainly seems ripe for some changes in the Maze camp. It was obvious with the release of a second "live" album set that
everything was not A-OK with Frankie Beverly and his Maze cohorts.
However, let's first of all dispel the rumour that circulates the most when the names of Frankie and Maze are mentioned. No Beverly solo run!

IT'S been three years since her last album . . . but now she's back! "Watch Out" is the title of the new album and single and judging by the response so far, both will be big sellers. Yes indeed, Patrice Rushen has returned with a vengeance. The album, incidentally, is all her own work except for three tracks ? "Somewhere", "Anything Can Happen" and "Long Time Comin'" ? and the project is a direct cross between dance and ballad.

AFTER a long hiatus and a label change, Steve Arrington is back in the land of the recorded living! The ex-front man for Slave marks his switch from Atlantic/Cotillion to Manhattan with what most critics feel is his best and, even more importantly, his most commercial effort yet "jam Packed".

Currently unattached, he adds that although he welcomes the attention of young ladies who show romantic interest, "I'm from the old school, an old-fashioned kind of guy so I can handle myself in the proper way. Right now though, I'd say my career is my biggest priority I'll deal with romance later!"

With a succession of specialist radio and club anthems ("Keep Your Body Working". "Get Tough"' "Intimate Connection" etc. having made Kleeer one of the most consistently acclaimed American funk outfits on the thriving early eighties UK soul scene,