Name: From a Whisper to a Scream
Brand: Esther Phillips

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

PPANKU05

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-09-23

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

F Minor

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5060149622070

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

SMCR5120

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Expanded 13 track Version.

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2023-02-03

Cherry Red (ADA)

5013929082038

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Esther Phillips

Genre GB

Funk / Soul

Label GB

Soul Music

Esther Phillips was an American soul and rhythm & blues singer. Born on December 23, 1935 in Galveston, Texas, she became a prominent figure in the music industry. At just fourteen years old, Esther won an amateur talent contest at the Barrelhouse Club owned by Johnny Otis. Impressed by her talent, Otis added her to his traveling revue and billed her as 'Little Esther'. She achieved great success with hits like "Double Crossing Blues" and "Mistrusting Blues". However, she faced challenges due to drug addiction.

In 1962, after overcoming her struggles with drugs, Esther made a comeback under the name Esther Phillips. Her country tune "Release Me" topped the R&B charts and reached number eight on the pop listings. She later signed with Atlantic Records and gained recognition for her cover of The Beatles' song "And I Love Him". In the 1970s, she ventured into disco music and achieved international success with "What A Difference A Day Made", a modern take on a jazz standard from the 1930s.

Tragically, Esther Phillips passed away at UCLA Medical Center in Carson, California in 1984 at the age of 48 due to liver and kidney failure. Her contributions to soul and rhythm & blues continue to inspire artists today.

The one-time 'Little Esther,' a.k.a. Esther Mae Jones, a.k.a. Esther Phillips, came to CTI Records' Kudu imprint in 1971 as a veteran artist. Though she was just shy of 36 years old, she already had 22 years of her career behind her. If Atlantic Records was unsure of the best setting in which to place Phillips' distinctive voice, Kudu's Creed Taylor had the formula from Day One. Taylor surrounded the vocalist with the best of his crossover-jazz roster on fresh, funky and contemporary songs, embracing soul, jazz, pop, and later, disco. The result was 'From a Whisper to a Scream', the subject of a new, expanded Soul Music reissue. 'From a Whisper to a Scream' was named after the Allen Toussaint composition. Esther's future musical director Pee Wee Ellis and Jack Wilson traded off arrangement duties on the album's songs, with CTI "house arranger" Don Sebesky sweetening some tracks with his trademark strings. Richard Tee, Bernard Purdie, Eric Gale, Hank Crawford and Airto Moreira all added their instrumental prowess. The album's nine tracks included another cut from the New Orleans piano man, 'Sweet Touch of Love,' as well as songs from Eddie Floyd ('That's All Right with Me,' 'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone'), Marvin Gaye ('Baby I'm for Real'), Big Dee Irwin ('Your Love is So Doggone Good') and Gil Scott-Heron (the wrenching 'Home is Where the Hatred Is,' on which Esther laid her soul and her own personal demons bare). Whisper garnered a great deal of attention when Aretha Franklin won a Grammy for her Young, Gifted and Black LP and turned it over to fellow nominee Phillips: "I liked Esther's record...I felt she could use encouragement," the generous Queen commented.

From a Whisper to a Scream

Music GB