I first encountered Abbey Lincoln's work in the late '80s, via the album You Gotta Pay the Band, which featured Stan Getz, among others. I saw her at The Irridium, when that club was in the basement of the Empire Hotel, backed by a trio of young guns. She had a grand, imperious manner on stage, at one point casting a baleful look at her pianist mid-tune, and lecturing him to "follow me, not him (her drummer)." her voiced had a lived in quality, not frayed like Holliday's, but weathered, and extraordinarily expressive. and unlike many jazz vocalists, she wrote much of her own material, while remaining a masterful interpreter of the songs of others. [rquoter]Abbey Lincoln, the gifted jazz vocalist and songwriter who in the ‘60s altered her career for the then-controversial cause of civil rights, died Saturday in New York. She was 80. A native of Chicago, Lincoln was also a noted actress who worked with Sidney Poitier in the 1968 comedy “For Love of Ivy,” in which she played a maid who sought professional advancement. She additionally appeared in many TV shows in the ‘70s. But Lincoln made her most indelible mark in jazz, primarily as a vocalist with a subtle, stately and ultimately intense manner who worked with the form’s greats. Influenced by Billie Holiday, she toyed with dynamics and sang behind the beat when the song warranted, adding sensuality and a depth of wisdom to the lyrics. In 1960, she and drummer Max Roach, who would become her husband two year later, recorded “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Suite Now!” With lyrics by Oscar Brown and accompanied by Roach, Coleman Hawkins and others, Lincoln sang of the oppression faced by generations of African-Americans and the ongoing battle for freedom and opportunity, her performance ranging from moaning as if in anguish to soaring vocal flights. It was far from standard fare for jazz performers. In ’61, she released “Straight Ahead” in which she fronted a combo that featured Roach, Hawkins, EricDolphy and Mal Waldron. For the recording, she wrote lyrics to Thelonious Monk’s “Blue Monk.” For much of the ’70 and into the late ‘80s, Lincoln did not record much, but in the ’90s, she re-emerged as a singular interpreter of song and began a string of albums produced by Jean-Philippe Allard that mixed jazz standards, the occasional re-imagined pop tune and, most notably, her compositions. In ‘97, she released her late-period masterwork, “Abbey Sings Abbey,” in which she performed her composition with stripped-down arrangements not unlike the kind then used by Cassandra Wilson, for whom she served as an influence. She revisited “Blue Monk” as an acoustic blues, offered “And It’s Supposed to be Love” with a country flair and sang “Bird Alone,” which she cut with StanGetz a decade earlier as a jazz ballad, as a boozy, baleful lament. She delivered what may be her most moving composition, “Throw It Away,” accompanied by a nylon-string guitar and accordion, her weary voice perhaps more affecting than ever. “Abbey Sings Abbey” was her final album of new material released during her lifetime. A boxed set, “Through the Years,” was issued earlier this year. Like “We Insist!” and “Abbey Sings Abbey,” the 37-song set is a testimony to a woman of many talents who willingly turned the joy and pain of her life into art to the benefit of those who heard and felt her song.[/rquoter] <object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j2OO3vuk3r4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j2OO3vuk3r4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object> this track is mislabeled dee dee bridgewater, but it's in fact Abbey. <object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lIuXuzucpY0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lIuXuzucpY0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object> <object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Apfw6jKYoxI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Apfw6jKYoxI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>
