Esther Phillips

Esther Phillips was born Esther May Jones on December 23, 1935 in Galveston, Texas. In 1948, she won an amateur contest in Los Angeles, singing Dinah Washington's Baby Get Lost. Billed as "Little Esther," and sounding way beyond her years, she recorded Double Crossing Blues with Johnny Otis, selling 400,000 copies before her fourteenth birthday.

Even in this early age, Esther’s voice was mottled and adaptable to any kind of music, from jazz to R&B to blues and soul. In the early 1950s, she recorded for a few different labels: the Federal label (I Like My Men Aged and Mellow), Decca and Savoy. Phillips finally made a hit record with the country song, Release Me, for the Lenox label in 1962. Release Me became a classic, following the models of Ray Charles, Solomon Burke and few others from that époque, who performed attractive, catchy songs based equally on black and white tradition. This started her great comeback in the '60s, when she ventured in interpreting everything from Beatles songs to ballads and standards, crowned by a triumphant appearance at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival.

Esther was another victim of the drug abuse that often interrupted her career and conditioned the length of her comebacks. When she made her final return in the '70s with a sensational live album, her adaptable voice and interpretation matched the disco era pith; her disco version of What a Difference a Day Makes hit the mark. Simultaneously, Phillips produced some wonderful recordings in blues, jazz and soul, too.

Since her childhood Esther Phillips often sang and recorded songs that had been recorded by Dinah Washington, but never risked to be her “replica”. Her way of interpreting Dinah’s music was more than a tribute to another great singer, who did not discriminate any kind of music and always delivered every tune with her distinctive vocal thoughtfulness. By majority, Phillips too was a true blueswoman, but not because of her repertoire; regardless of what she was singing, her timbre palette was so articulated, her lyrics diction invincible.

Discography

Media Files