The brilliance of From a Whisper to a Scream cannot be overstated. From Esther’s lived-in intimacy with the hand-picked song selections matched to choice rhythm and horn arrangements by Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, string charts by the great Don Sebesky and a dream team of New York’s finest session players, all of the elements had finally come together to create the ageless/timeless classic of Esther’s career. Cementing this sentiment in stone is the fact that in March of 1973 when Aretha Franklin won the Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance Female Grammy® for her outstanding album Young, Gifted and Black, the Queen of Soul gave her statuette to Esther Phillips conceding that she deserved it more - one of the most heartfelt gestures in the history of that annual derby of corporate sanctioned musical excellence.
However, that magical moment had not happened yet when Esther sailed in to record Alone Again, Naturally in September-October of 1972. At that time, she knew she’d just had a monster on her hands and basically went about assembling the new album in identical fashion – with Ellis and Sebesky, many of the same players (including label mate Hank Crawford) and more song selections of her personal choosing.
The album opened with Esther’s cover of “Use Me.” The song had just been released as the second single from singer/songwriter Bill Withers’ sophomore album Still Bill, but had been an album cut favorite because of its wicked acoustic down home groove. Bill’s version was universally championed by musicians – especially drummers thanks to James Gadson’s infectious rim-knock rhythm – and the lyric crawled under everybody’s skin with its delicious message of carnal surrender to a “good thing” that was too hard to deny. To all of this, Esther and company fought burnin’ fire with quiet fire – substituting a more laidback reggae-tinged groove courtesy of Bernard Purdie and an uptown horn chart over which Esther rocked a carefully modulated performance. By the third verse’s “Baby-baby-baby when you love me I can’t get enough,” she is letting it all hang out, kicking her album off on the good foot.
