Name: From a Whisper to a Scream: Expanded Edition
Brand: Soul Music Records
SKU: 51466883
Price: 15.63 USD
Availability: InStock

From a Whisper to a Scream

Rating

Album: From a Whisper to a Scream: Expanded Edition
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Home Is Where the Hatred Is	More Info...
2)	From a Whisper to a Scream	More Info...
3)	To Lay Down Beside You	More Info...
4)	That's All Right With Me	More Info...
5)	'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone	More Info...
6)	Sweet Touch of Love	More Info...
7)	Baby, I'm for Real	More Info...
8)	Your Love Is So Doggone Good	More Info...
9)	Scarred Knees	More Info...
10)	How Blue Can You Get	More Info...
11)	Brother, Brother	More Info...
12)	Don't Run to Him	More Info...
13)	A Beautiful Friendship	More Info...

Album: From a Whisper to a Scream: Expanded Edition
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Home Is Where the Hatred Is	More Info...
2)	From a Whisper to a Scream	More Info...
3)	To Lay Down Beside You	More Info...
4)	That's All Right With Me	More Info...
5)	'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone	More Info...
6)	Sweet Touch of Love	More Info...
7)	Baby, I'm for Real	More Info...
8)	Your Love Is So Doggone Good	More Info...
9)	Scarred Knees	More Info...
10)	How Blue Can You Get	More Info...
11)	Brother, Brother	More Info...
12)	Don't Run to Him	More Info...
13)	A Beautiful Friendship	More Info...

Performer Notes

One of Esther Phillips finest '70s releases, From a Whisper to a Scream is the first of seven albums the singer recorded for CTI offshoot Kudu. Arranged and conducted by Pee Wee Ellis, the December 1971 session also involved principal players such as bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Bernard Purdie, percussionist Airto, guitarists Cornell Dupree and Eric Gale, keyboardist Richard Tee, and saxophonists Hank Crawford and David Liebman. Setting the tone for Phillips' Kudu era, Whisper offers a series of spacious, yet fully arranged ballads of burning heartache, along with a handful of relatively funky numbers that do nothing to compromise her talent, dishing out loads of classy grit. It's a definite point of departure from the likes of Esther Phillips Sings and And I Love Him, her field of contemporaries closer to Al Green and Aretha Franklin than before. She grabs onto "Home Is Where the Hatred Is," Gil Scott-Heron's most harrowing rumination on drug dependency -- which, at that point, wasn't even a year old -- as if it were her very own, and it's all the more poignant given its parallels with her own life. (Its meaning was only compounded by her death in 1984.) Though there is absolutely nothing lacking in the album's more energetic moments, it's still the ballads that shine brightest, like the alternately fragile and explosive "From a Whisper to a Scream" (Allen Toussaint) and a staggering "Baby, I'm for Real" (Marvin and Anna Gordy, made popular by the Originals) so vulnerable yet commanding that it really should've closed the album. ~ Andy Kellman

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (7/6/72, p.62) - "...She puts her bitter yet warm personal stamp on everything on the album, and covers a really broad range of material, from blues to ballads..."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.69) - "[With] an incredible funked-up version of Gil Scott-Heron's harrowing portrait of drug addiction, 'Home Is Where The Hatred Is'..."