Esther Phillips: Heart of the Blues

Esther Phillips (1935-84) was truly one of the grande dames of American R&B. If she hadn’t been beset with addiction issues and had stronger management during her lifetime she may have been heralded properly as a true peer to Aretha, Gladys, Patti, Koko, Etta and other R&B and blues legends. Phillips’s well-known struggles with drug addiction always gave her life a poignant edge that can distract from the greatness of her singing. Her death at age 48 (of kidney and liver failure), and a general sense that she was an underrated talent who never quite blossomed, shrouds her life in a sense of an unfinished dream deferred eternally.

Fortunately, in the 2000s her oeuvre has become more broadly accessible digitally. Her versatility and emotional directness standout the most; she is a distinct stylist whose somewhat nasal intonation and surefooted phrasing give her performances a genuine wallop. No production style—strings, choirs, revving guitars—can take overwhelm her irrepressible way with a song. 2020’s Brand New Day boxed set reissues her Lenox, Roulette, and Atlantic recordings from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s. though many were available on CD in various forms this freshly remastered set features excellent liner notes and an abundance of outtakes and unreleased material worth hearing. Her story is worth learning so here’s my take:

The 2020 reissue of Phillips’s 1962-70 recordings is a cause for revisiting her legendary career.

Esther Phillips was a staple in the R&B market from 1949-54 performing as “Little Esther.” At that time, she was often paired with male R&B singers and recorded with pioneers like Johnny Otis. She took a hiatus from recording to deal with substance abuse issues and came back in the early-60s recording for Atlantic Records from 1962-71 where she scored several R&B and pop hits. In 1971 Phillips switched to Kudu/CTI Records where her material was grittier and less poppy. She left Kudu for Mercury Records where she recorded from 1977-81. Phillips was a very versatile singer with a distinctive nasal voice, and a down-home approach to interpreting lyrics.

Phillips began her career as “Little Esther” and was a radio staple in the 1950s until taking a pause in her recording career.

I read about Esther Phillips in record guides long before I heard her recordings. Almost every biographical account of her highlights the tragedy of her drug addiction and its ultimate toll on her life. The story of talented singers silenced by drugs is a trope in American pop music lore that haunts the careers of Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Phillips, among others. The lurid details of their overdoses and disease are the stuff of tabloids, biographies, melodramas, and musicals. I am far more interested in what makes singers musically interesting than the magnitude of their vices.

Phillips is interesting for multiple reasons. Vocally, she stands outside of the husky, gritty vocal textures commonly associated with soul and R&B music—a sound well represented by a spectrum of voices including Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Betty LaVette, Laura Lee and more recently Mary J. Blige and Sharon Jones.  Compared to them Phillips has a thin, nasal voice with a wiry quality. There are traces of Dinah Washington and Etta Jones in her sound but traditional R&B grit is not her defining sound.

Stylistically, she is the rare singer of her generation to straddle the jazz, blues, and R&B worlds. Dinah Washington is frequently viewed as a key influence on Phillips. Their greatest resemblance is a virtuosic flexibility—Washington brings her crisp enunciation, blues-inflected phrasing, and attitude to everything she sings. Whether singing Hank Williams, Percy Mayfield, George Gershwin, or Clyde Otis, she always sounds like herself and always sounds comfortable. Phillips also has this quality. Whereas her R&B peers may have occasionally slipped in tunes outside of the R&B canon she recorded whole albums of country songs, standards, and blues songs. Phillips is not just eclectic—she is a student of American music.

African-Americans have long had a complex relationship with “the blues.” R&B and soul are generally understood as modern, urbanized derivates of blues techniques and themes. These forms may be the roots of R&B, but for many listeners, and singers blues material seems anachronistic, rural, and depressing. Most R&B singers of Phillips’s generation did not devote their careers to classic blues, country blues, delta blues, Chicago blues, and other iterations, even if they admired these genres. But Phillips was steeped in the blues wholesale. As I discuss below, 1976’s Confessin’ the Blues is a bonafide blues album in material and performance as she tackles “C.C. Rider,” “In the Evenin’” and a 10:40 blues medley. 1970’s Burnin’ is not explicitly blues material wise, but blues technique is its core best exemplified by her takes on “If It’s the Last thing I Do” and “Please Send Me Someone to Love.” By choosing to center the genre she modernized it in her own terms as raw material for singing and as a relevant interpretive technique.

Her approach to standards and showtunes, and country music also signify her immersion in American musical forms.  Esther Phillips Sings (1966) is a legitimate swing and ballads set. She could have been a full-time jazz singer and she continued to record standards in a swing vein well into the ‘70s and early ‘80s. The Country Side of Esther (1966) was not an anomaly either; she recorded country material during her reign at Atlantic (“Hello Walls” compiled on 1986’s Set Me Free) and did a great “Crazy” during her Mercury Records stint. 

Esther was also open to contemporary pop. As a singer whose career preceded the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll (her “Little Esther” years) and whose rebirth occurred as soul music, folk-rock and the British Invasion were redefining pop she kept her ears open. Her versions of material as disparate as the Beatles’ “And I Love Him,” Percy Sledge’s “When a Woman Loves a Man,” the ‘60s perennial “A Taste of Honey,” and ‘70s fare by Gil Scott-Heron and Bill Withers illustrated her ongoing knack for newer forms of pop music.  The more one listens to Phillips the more she emerges as an important singer rather than a tragic icon.

The best compilation of Phillips’s earliest recordings is British Record company JSP Records’s Little Esther: The Early Hits 1949-1954. Phillips is a charming presence throughout this double-disc of somewhat generic, but consistently entertaining R&B. Like many child performers there’s precociousness in pairing her with older men singing mature themes. Some of this is tempered by silly sound effects and production gimmicks that evoke the goofy spirit of ‘50s pop. These performances are entertaining performances of historical interest, but I focus on the mature Esther.

Though nearly a decade passed before Phillips returned to recording her skills remained intact and she grew into her voice. Atlantic Records showcased Phillips as a versatile pop singer who could sing standards, contemporary pop hits and country material, but her strongest albums emphasize the blues. And I Love Him (1965) is an odd combination on paper as she applies her nasal sultry voice to light pop fare (“People,” “Girl from Ipanema”) and standards over lush orchestral (and choral!) backing. This tension makes for interesting, and not off-putting, listening. Her comfort with the Beatles’ title track, standards, doo-wop and samba illustrates impressive, if scattered versatility. It somehow hangs together.  

The Country Side of Esther (a 1966 reissue of an album recorded for Lennox Records in 1962) is a straight-laced rendition of country classics sung with R&B flair. She, along with Solomon Burke and Ray Charles, was one of the first black pop singers to make hits out of country songs. The arrangements are typically pop-oriented (strings and cooing background vocals) but her emotive style is always central. “Release Me” (later covered by crooner Engelbert Humperdinck!) became one of her signature hits.

Esther Phillips Sings (1966) places Phillips in a big band and small group jazz setting. Though she is associated with R&B and light pop, Phillips is very capable of singing songbook material confidently. Her key strength is the willingness to adapt the songs to her voice and almost oratorical phrasing. An underrated set with fine ballads (“Ev’rytime We Say Goodbye”) and solid swingers (“It’s All right with Me”).

1970’s Burnin, a live set recorded at Freddie Jett’s Pied Piper Club, is a superb, searing set. Freed from the recording studio Phillips blossoms by stretching songs out and really digging into the lyrics. She is a personable, humorous presence and her performances are ace. She has a natural ease with swing rhythms, inflects everything with a sultry blues tonality, and consistently masters the dynamics of each song for maximum emotional impact, thanks to great chemistry with her band. In 1975 Atlantic released Confessin’ the Blues, a mix of studio cuts and live takes recorded in 1970, that rates as her best LP, even if it’s a hodgepodge. She is one of modern pop’s blues masters, evident on thrilling performances of classic blues like “C.C. Rider,” “In the Evenin’” and a superb blues medley comprised of “Blow Top Blues/ Jelly Jelly Blues/Long John Blues.”

In the early to mid 1970s Phillips recorded some of the most powerful soul music of the decade at Kudu Records.

She built on these strengths at Kudu. There she shifted from the very ‘60s production approach toward sleeker, deeper and more modern arrangements.  Her material also improved. The 2004 Raven Records collection Home is where the Hatred Is: The Kudu Years 1971-1977 provides the cream of this era; it’s arguably her peak. Her repertoire features more contemporary songs with a more personal perspective. The title track is a haunting reflection on the lives of junkies; she adds a dollop of blue to Bill Withers’s “Use Me” and Joe Cocker’s “Black Eyed Blues,” and makes the standards “What A Diff’rence a Day Makes” and “Unforgettable” work as funky disco tunes (!). In 2014 Raven Records compiled Phillips’ four Kudu albums (with bonus singles) into the double-disc collection Baby I’m For Real! 1971-1974. The set has great color photos, detailed notes, and recording information; it finally gives Phillips her proper due as a great recording artist well into the early 1970s.

Her Mercury Recordings are available as reissued double-discs, though by the end of her career she was confined to more formulaic production settings. In the late ‘70s Phillips strived to stay hip and satisfy the era’s commercial demands. This was unfortunate as disco was not the right approach for her voice and sapped her music of much of its blues and jazz flavoring. You’ve Come a Long Way (1977) is a strange hybrid of blues and jazz standards, and contemporary R&B tunes mostly set in disco and light funk arrangements. The quality of material ranges from trendy to classic, but it never quite gels. Straight readings of “You’ve been a Good Ole Wagon” and “Somewhere along the Line” work. But the disco versions of “If I Loved You” and “My Prayer” are awkward, misguided attempts at updating these classics. “I’ve Been a Woman Before” has an interesting monologue even though the song itself is slight. All About Esther (1978) is almost entirely skippable pillow talk except for an endearing “Native New Yorker” and a great “There You Go Again/Stormy Weather” medley.

1979’s Here’s Esther, Are You Ready is yet another disco styled approach. The ‘60s and ‘70s covers (i.e. “Mr. Melody,” “Our Day Will Come”) fail to make new impressions and the originals are forgettable. Her “I’ll Close my Eyes” is an odd cap to the album though her rendering is solid. Good Black is Hard to Crack (1981) is also forgettable disco flavored R&B material that mostly blends together in a continuous drone. Her final recordings (A Way to Say Goodbye was her final album) are disappointing for compressing her talents into such a narrow sound. 

These albums depicted the pressure on singers to conform to disco and funk formulas of the time but were not the best representations of her talents. Fortunately, in 1986 Atlantic Records released the compilation Set Me Free featuring singles, b-sides and various other recordings. Though it’s a hodgepodge, with material ranging from “Fever” to Bobby Womack’s “I’m in Love,” it reiterates what a versatile and underrated talent Phillip was during the peak of her career.

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