Esther Phillips

Hi, a suggestion for Esther or Little Esther as she was known in the early 50's. Worked with the Johnny Otis orchestra in the early fifties. Drugs stuffed her up and she disappeared for years and in 1962 Kenny Rogers (yeah the country one) revived her career which lead her to Atlantic records after a short hiatus at Lenox. "Release Me " was the song that was the first hit in her careers 2nd stage. The Jazz mainly lays with this work period for her. The first two Atlantic albums "Esther" and "I Love Him" are good pointers. The song "Try Me" has King Curtis with her. Oliver Nelson was one of the producers for "Esther". The early stuff with Johnny Otis was all the Blues songs jazzed up. "Double Crossing Blues", "Mistrusting Blues",Cupid Blues:, "Misery" etc. Early seventies she went full on R&B with album after album on Kudu mainly. "From A Whisper To A Scream" with "Home Is Where The Hatred Is" ( Gil Scot Heron comp.) is the biggie.  Yeah disco had started but she did keep the Soul component within.

Thanks, we're working on it.

Hey Matt, was it Esther that you showed me doing a Gil Scott-Heron cover a while back?
Or did I imagine it, was it someone else by chance?

js wrote: Esther does a great cover of "Home is where the Hatred is", a tale of narcotic use.

Excellent, thanks John - I thought it was her. Matt put a video up somewhere, I'll find it now I reckon - I remember it being great.

Love that album of his, wish I could find a reasonably-priced copy of his first - the spoken one. I haven't checked for a while but

Awesome