Alex Henderson

Bobbi Humphrey
Tailor Made

1977’s Tailor Made was a major turning point in the career of flutist/singer Bobbi Humphrey. Prior to that, the Texas native (who was born in Marlin, TX on April 25, 1950 and grew up in Dallas) had recorded for Blue Note Records—where she established herself as one of the top jazz flutists of the 1970s. Humphrey, in fact, was easily the most celebrated jazz flutist of that decade next to Hubert Laws and the late Herbie Mann. That isn’t to say that Humphrey’s Blue Note albums of the early to mid-1970s were straight-ahead bop from start to finish; rather, she offered a groove-oriented mixture of jazz, funk, soul and rock—and everything from Duke Ellington and Lee Morgan to Stevie Wonder was fair game. Some of her Blue Note singles became minor hits on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the United States, including “Harlem River Drive,” “Chicago, Damn” and the Latin-flavored “Uno Está.” So Humphrey had plenty of crossover appeal during her Blue Note days. The difference between her Blue Note albums and Tailor Made, which was her first album for Epic/CBS Records (now Epic Records/Sony Music), was that at Epic, Humphrey became even more crossover-minded. Vocals became more prominent, and Humphrey the instrumentalist took a back seat to Humphrey the singer.

Tailor Made contains a few jazz-funk instrumentals, including the Brazilian-flavored “Fajehzo.” But the album is dominated by vocal-oriented R&B, and vocals take center stage whether Humphrey is getting into sleek disco-soul on “I Started Living,” “Dancing to Keep from Crying,” “Lover to Lover” and the title track or favoring a mellow quiet storm approach on the ballad “Most of All.” And Humphrey takes that R&B-minded approach with the guidance of songwriter Skip Scarborough, who produced Tailor Made in California and oversees a talented cast that includes, among others, Ray Obeido on guitar, Sheila Escovedo (a.k.a. Sheila E) and Bill Summers on percussion, Mark Soskin on keyboards, Roger Glenn on vibes and marimba and Bill Meeker on drums. Soskin and David Crawford both help with the horn and string arrangements.

The fact that Scarborough had written or co-written some major R&B hits wasn’t lost on Epic Records, which hoped that he would be able to increase Humphrey’s presence in the R&B market. A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana who spent most of his life in Los Angeles, Scarborough began to make a name for himself when “Love or Let Me Be Lonely” (which he co-wrote) became a big hit for the Friends of Distinction (a group that was often compared to the 5^th Dimension) in 1970. Scarborough went on to write “Can’t Hide Love,” which was originally recorded in 1973 by the Creative Source (an L.A.-based group) but became much better known when Earth, Wind & Fire’s version reached #11 R&B in Billboard in the U.S. in 1975. Scarborough’s winning streak continued when he wrote “Love Ballad” (which was a  #1 R&B smash for L.T.D. in the U.S. in 1976) and the Emotions’ 1977 hit “Don’t Ask My Neighbors.”

During a September 2014 interview, Crawford remembered how much of a change of direction Tailor Made was for Humphrey 37 year ago. “I could see that Bobbi was focused on making the transition from jazz to the mainstream market for R&B,” Crawford recalls. “She was very focused and very determined. And when Epic Records hired Skip Scarborough, it was obvious that Bobbi was going for funk and disco. Tailor Made wasn’t jazz so much: some of it had a jazz feel, but most of it was Bobbi wanting to do funk and disco. And the vocals were a big part of that.”

R&B became increasingly electronic in the 1980s, relying heavily on synthesizers, drum machines and sequences. But when Tailor Made was recorded in 1977, lavish horn and string sections were still plentiful in R&B—which was great for arrangers like Crawford. “Horns and string arrangements were a given for R&B records in the ‘70s,” Crawford notes. “That was a good time for arrangers.”

Interviewed separately in September 2014, the New York City-based Soskin (who was born in Brooklyn on July 12, 1953) remembered that Scarborough himself hired him to help with the horn and string arrangements on Tailor Made. The 61-year-old Soskin, who lived in San Francisco from 1974-1981, recalls: “Skip Scarborough was really instrumental in getting me to do Tailor Made, and I had a great time doing it. I had done a few records with Bill Summers, the percussion player—and Skip produced for Bill. Skip liked what I did with Bill and invited me to play on Tailor Made.”

Those who are familiar with Soskin’s history know that he is highly eclectic: along the way, Soskin has made his mark in everything from R&B to Latin music to straight-ahead jazz (the iconic hard bop tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins has used him extensively over the years). By the time Soskin worked on Tailor Made at the age of 24, he already had a diverse résumé as a pianist/keyboardist. But writing string arrangements, Soskin notes, was a new experience for him.

“I’ve always been a pianist, but I arrange and compose as well—and Tailor Made was the first time I ventured into string arrangements,” Soskin recalls. “So I was kind of nervous. But the strings, I think, came out as everybody wanted them—and I was happy about that. Bobbi was very nice to work with and was pretty laid back. She sort of let Skip handle the proceedings. I remember it to be an easygoing session.”

After Tailor Made, Humphrey recorded two more albums for Epic: 1978’s Freestyle and 1979’s The Good Life. Humphrey recorded sporadically after that, resurfacing on the independent, Jackson, Mississippi-based Malaco Records with City Beat in 1989 and releasing Passion Flute on her own label, Paradise Sounds Records, in 1994. Humphrey, now 64, is still performing, but Scarborough, sadly, was only 58 when he died of cancer in 2003.

1977 was a competitive time for soul, funk and disco. But on Tailor Made, Humphrey—with the encouragement of Skip Scarborough—demonstrated that she wasn’t afraid to take the R&B plunge.

—Alex Henderson, September 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, 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, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.