Consumer Guide Album

Esther Phillips: Burnin' [Atlantic, 1970]
With her lubricious, naturally sardonic high vibrato, this modern blues singer is well equipped to carry Dinah Washington's torch, and a club date with the likes of Chuck Rainey and Cornell Dupree is the perfect place for her to shine her light--even the horn overdubs sound hot. But there are only three blues, and she doesn't bring quite enough to either the standards ("Shangri-La" is the most regrettable) or the "contemporary material" (one Aretha, one Beatles) with which a nightclub pro fills out her act. B+