Tracklist:
1. Unforgettable (Irving Gordon) 3:38
2. For All We Know (J. Fred Coots / Sam M. Lewis) 3:33
3. Pure Natural Love (J. Deshannon / G. Ballantyne) 5:20
4. Fools Rush In (R. Bloom / J. Mercer) 4:25
5. Going Out of My Head (T. Randazzo / B. Weinstein) 7:51
6. Fever (J. Davenport / E. Cooley) 3:35
7. Caravan (D. Ellington / J. Tizol / I. Mills) 5:43
Musician personnel and album credits:
Arranged by Joe Beck
Esther Phillips: vocal
Joe Beck: lead guitar & all guitar solos
Steve Khan: rhythm guitar (1,2,3,4,5,6)
Don Grolnick: electric piano (1,2,3,5), acoustic piano (7)
Leon Pendarvis: electric piano (2)
Bobby Lyle: electric piano (4)
Will Lee: electric bass (1,2,3,4,5,6)
Gary King: electric bass (7)
Andy Newmark: drums (1,3,4,7)
Chris Parker: drums (2,6)
George Devens: percussion & congas (2,5,6)
Ralph MacDonald: percussion & congas (3,4)
Nicky Marrero: percussion (1,2,6,7) & timbales (5)
Michael Brecker: all tenor sax solos
Frank Vicari: tenor sax (7)
Ronnie Cuber: baritone sax
Randy Brecker: trumpet
Barry Rogers: trombone
Fred Wesley: trombone (7)
Max Ellen, Paul Gershman, Harry Glyckman, Emanuel Green, Harold Kohon, David Nadien, John Pintavalle & Max Polikoff: violin
Harold Coletta & Theodore Israel: viola
Seymour Barab, Charles McCracken, Alan Shulman & Anthony Sophos: cello
Patti Austin: backing vocal & vocal arrangement (1,6)
Tasha Thomas: backing vocal & vocal arrangement (2,4,3,5,7)
Peggy Blue, Carl Carldwell, Hilda Harris & Maeretha Stewart: backing vocal
Liner Notes by Arnaldo DeSouteiro for the 24Bit Remastering Japanese CD reissues of ESTHER PHILIPS with Beck: FOR ALL WE KNOW
Kudu KICJ 8360 (released on July 25, 2001)
Kudu KICJ 2213 (released on March 7, 2007)
Reissues Supervised and Remastered by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
For all we know, it is impossible to talk
about For All We know (originally released in 1976 as KU-28) without
talking about the unforgettable What A Diff’rence a Day Makes (KU-23),
the album that transformed Esther Phillips (at least for one year) into
a disco-music diva. Conceived by Tony Sarafino, the unofficial A&R
man at CTI/Kudu for disco-oriented projects, What A Diff’rence A Day
Makes became a milestone on Esther’s career as her biggest hit and
best-selling album ever. Recorded in April 1975, released as a single
three months later, its title track (curiously, the big hit of Dinah
Washington, Esther’s main idol and influence) exploded in the New York
dancefloor scene, and soon it swept Europe.
Besides Tony Sarafino, the other musical hero in that project was Joe
Beck, then recently signed for the Kudu label as a solo artist. All in
the music circles became very surprised to know that the great
guitarist had done the arrangements not only for the basic tracks, but
for the string section as well! Basically because nobody had ever heard
Joe Beck arranging for strings, not even on his solo album Beck (KICJ
8359), which included string arrangements by Don Sebesky. Anyway, the
pairing of Esther Phillips and Joe Beck succeeded in all aspects,
leading producer Creed Taylor to do a kind of volume 2, quickly booking
dates at Van Gelder’s studio in October 1975.
Most of the musicians featured on What A Diff’rence A Day Makes (Don
Grolnick, Will Lee, Chris Parker, Steve Khan, Ralph MacDonald, Barry
Rogers and The Brecker Brothers) were once again hired for its
follow-up album, For All We Know, with some other studio kings (like
Andy Newmark and Ronnie Cuber) also invited to the sessions. Not to
mention two other great percussionists: Latin legend and Fania
recording artist Nicky Marrero, and the underrated George Devens, a
classically-trained percussion master who was a former member of George
Shearing’s quintet. Plus: seasoned studio vocalists Patti Austin and
Tasha Thomas got the hard task to write the vocal arrangements.
In November, Esther Phillips completed the vocal parts. In December,
Joe Beck added the string section. The following month, the first promo
copies were mailed to club and radio DJs, who enjoyed the new album
almost as much as they have loved the previous one. However, in spite
of all the promotional efforts by the CTI team, For All We Know did not
yield any huge hit a la What A Diff’rence A Day Makes, although two
tracks (shortened versions of Fever and For All We Know), released on
the KU-929 single, received heavy airplay.
Maybe that was the first mistake. According to Joe Beck, “Creed should
have selected Unforgettable as the first single, because it was the
most commercial track, as well as a potential disco-hit which I had
prepared the same way I had done with What A Diff’rence A Day Makes”,
remembers the guitarist, whose name was discretely featured in the
album cover.
While, on What A Diff’rence A Day Makes, Esther had been reluctant to
record most of the tracks selected by Tony Sarafino, during the
pre-production work for the new album she was so happy that she wanted
to select some of the songs. Three of them (Unforgettable, For All We
Know, Fools Rush In) previously recorded by Nat King Cole. Two of them
(Unforgettable and For All We Know) also covered by Dinah Washington.
Actually, Irving Gordon’s Unforgettable, introduced by Nat King Cole in
1951, was recorded by Dinah Washington as the title track of her 1959
album for the Mercury label. Later on, in 1964, it also became the
title of an Aretha Franklin session in tribute to Dinah, released by
Columbia. And most recently, Natalie Cole sold over six million copies
of her 7-time Grammy Award winner Unforgettable album for Elektra in
1991. Listening to Esther Phillips’ crepitant and very sexy version,
with the singer sighing of desire behind Michael Brecker’s sax, it is
difficult to understand why it was not chosen as the album title
neither as its first single.
Fred Coots/Sam Lewis’ For All We Know, another song picked by Esther
herself, had been covered by both Dinah Washington (on Drinking Again,
in 1962) and Billie Holiday (on Lady In Satin, in 1958), after Nat King
Cole’s 1943 version. Another Nat smash hit, covered by everyone, from
Glenn Miller to Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley, Johnny Mercer’s sublime
Fools Rush In, also receives a discofied arrangement that sounds better
than anything ever recorded by Donna Summer or Gloria Gaynor. The
keyboardist is LA-based Bobby Lyle, fresh from his stint with Sly &
The Family Stone.
Next, Esther displays her r&b roots on a stunning rendition of Pure
Natural Love, penned by the beautiful and very talented
singer/songwriter Jackie DeShannon. On the acoustic piano, Don Grolnick
plunges into Eddie Cooley’s Fever, a big hit for Peggy Lee in the
Fifties, revived by Madonna on her x-rated Erotica album from 1992.
Curiously, besides Esther Phillips’ intoxicating version, the most
successful recording of this song, in the dancefloor scene, was done by
Brazilian singer/actress Norma Bengell back in 1959, being recently
rediscovered by European DJs. Then comes Duke Ellington’s classic
Caravan, in a funky groove, with a baritone sax obbligato by Ronnie
Cuber.
But nothing compares to the Latin-tinged arrangement Joe Beck prepared
for Teddy Randazzo’s Going Out Of My Head, turned into a hit by Little
Anthony & The Imperials in 1965. That same year, Creed Taylor
convinced Wes Montgomery to cut this song, used as the title track for
his best-selling Verve album which won a Grammy the following year for
Best Instrumental Jazz Performance. This is really a perfect track,
with an intoxicating groove, a subtle Don Grolnick solo on electric
piano, a fantastic interaction between George Devens on congas and
Nicky Marrero on timbales, plus a superb backing vocal arrangement by
future CTI star Patti Austin.
After For All We Know, Esther, who had already recorded five albums for
Kudu (From A Whisper To A Scream, Alone Again Naturally, Black-Eyed
Blues, Performance, and What A Diff’rence A Day Makes), still cut
another album for the label, Capricorn Princess, in 1976, with David
Matthews replacing Joe Beck as arranger. She can also be heard on two
moving performances (Cherry Red and God Bless The Child) from the CTI
Summer Jazz Live At The Hollywood Bowl concert, recorded in 1972 but
only issued in 1977. And one exciting album recorded live on July 1975,
at NY’s Bottom Line, remains unreleased in the CTI archives.
Then, after leaving Kudu, Esther released four albums on Mercury, the
same label for which her idol Dinah Washington had recorded her most
memorable albums. Her final session, titled A Way To Say Goodbye, for
the small Muse label, came out in 1984. Esther Phillips, born Esther
Mae Jones on December 23, 1925, passed away on August 7, 1984, of liver
and kidney failure. This digitally remastered of For All We Know is a
good way to celebrate her immortal talent.
--Arnaldo DeSouteiro
May 29, 2001
Mr. DeSouteiro is Brazil’s top jazz producer and CTI historian