From a Whisper to a Scream

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.