OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With Esther Phillips!

Greetings, music sluts, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Did you know, it's also National First Ladies Day, which celebrates American President's wives. This is not to be confused with Ella Fitzgerald, who was known as The First Lady of Song, but if you'd like to celebrate First Ladies and Ella, who am I to stop you?

Meanwhile, DJ Li'l Scratch has a surprise for you tonight at the Manor's "Low Hangers Lounge," where he'll be spinning tunes by a two-time Grammy-nominated artist who got her start singing with her local church choir, then won a talent contest as a fourteen-year-old at the legendary Barrelhouse Club in Watts, Los Angeles, co-owned by the equally legendary musician, composer and bandleader, Johnny Otis. He promptly recorded her first songs and insisted she join his tour.

Esther Phillips, or "Little Esther" as she was first known on an early handbill, was a master at R&B, blues, jazz, pop, soul and...the list goes on. There really wasn't anything she couldn't do.

Still, life wasn't easy. Like Billie Holiday and Anita O'Day, she struggled throughout the years with heroin addiction, yet after each bout, she rose like a phoenix, creating more records and exploring even more musical genres - even cutting a country LP (hey there, Beyonce!) and scoring a major hit with her rock 'n roll cover of the Beatles' "And I Love Him (Her).” Later, she had another hit with a breathy, delightfully orgasmic disco version of Dinah Washington's "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes."

I have a real affection for Esther, and I bet you will, too, once you listen to her gorgeous 1966 LP, "Set Me Free." Many compare her soulfulness to Aretha, her bluesiness to Dinah, but when you hear her take on Peggy Lee's "Fever," for example, or "A Woman Will Do No Wrong" (my favorite track here), you'll realize that there's only one Esther.

You can listen to the complete "Set Me Free" LP right here!

What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.

Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾

Photo Credits: Rhino Atlantic; Getty Images