Esther Phillips

Consistent material (lots of twelve-bar) and the complete absence of violins make these sessions--recorded in the mid-to-late '60s, half with big band and half with combo--preferable to the run of her Kudu albums. But that's not to make the purist assumption that the settings are ideal--the combo is a bit too elegant, the charting ordinary. Compare "Cherry Red" on Alone Again, Naturally, where modernistic blues from Stuff inspires a funny, pained intimacy, to this one, which begins with Sonny Criss blowing some real blues out from between his colleagues but ends with a climax that compels Phillips to belt for no dramatic reason. (Grade: A-)