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Celebrate songwriters Abbey Lincoln and Bernice Petkere

By Mary Foster Conklin

Many special birthdays in this episode of A Broad Spectrum as we honor the great Abbey Lincoln and remember Bernice Petkere, named the “Queen of Tin Pan Alley" by Irving Berlin for her songs “Close Your Eyes" and “"Lullaby of the Leaves." Playlist Linda Dachtyl “A Late One" from A Late One (Chicken Coop Records) 00:00 Pucci Amand Jhones “Key Largo" from Love, Jhones (Candace Jazz) 04:20 Benny Carter “Blue Moonlight" from Benny Carter Songbook, Vol. 2 ...

Abbey Lincoln: African Queen in a Top Hat

By Joan Gannij

(This interview was conducted in 2002) Abbey Lincoln made a stop in Amsterdam in 1998 for a rare appearance at the 110-year old Concertgebouw, where Sonny Rollins likes to play when he comes to town. The sellout crowd was composed mainly of seemingly staid yet perennially hip “pensionados" (as the Dutch like to refer to their restless retirees) but by the end of the final encore, the historic hall had reached a collective groove and the ghosts ...

Abbey Lincoln: Abbey Sings Abbey

By Suzanne Lorge

At almost 77 years of age Abbey Lincoln has been composing, writing and/or performing for almost sixty years, and Abbey Sings Abbey is a stunning collection of some of the singer's most memorable works. Lincoln is a writer of some depth and the eleven original tunes on this CD offer strong testament to her poetic talents. The lyrics of each song impart a serious message, it's true, but her matter-of-fact acceptance of life's crummier bits leaves one feeling ...

Abbey Lincoln: Abbey Is Blue

By David Rickert

In 1959 Abbey Lincoln was poised to make a truly great album, and Abbey Is Blue was it. Not only was it a breakout performance for Lincoln, who delivered on the promise she had already shown, it was also a breakthrough performance in jazz singing.

With the civil rights movement looming over the horizon, no longer did singers need to stick with standards and Tin Pan Alley tunes and could truly sing about subjects that mattered to them. ...

Abbey Lincoln: Spirited and Spiritual

By R.J. DeLuke

Music serves many purposes for people on this planet. It's fun. It can be an escape. It can be soothing and even nostalgic. But for some it carries a deeper meaning, a deeper purpose. In this realm lies the art of Abbey Lincoln. At age 73, she is one of the last of the great jazz singers of her generation. Lest anyone get the wrong idea, now is not the time for considering her epitaph. This artist is still thinking, ...

Abbey Lincoln: It's Me

By AAJ Staff

One of the last true great jazz vocalists, 73-year old Abbey Lincoln continues to produce timeless recordings and live concert dates. It's Me is as strong as any entry in her half-century discography. Lincoln shows us again that she excels in being both a most memorable interpreter and an original singer/songwriter. Her recent week-long residency at the Blue Note shed such a light: accentuating like no other, every word sung like her last and as much from ...

Abbey Lincoln: Through the Years

By AAJ Staff

Submitted on behalf of Russ Musto Abbey Lincoln is jazz' golden lady, the music's marvelous magical matriarch whose impressive 50 year career has taken her from smooth supper club singer and movie star to distinctive jazz vocalist, fiery social activist, and highly regarded lyricist and composer. Her unique and inspiring body of work was honored last year by Jazz at Lincoln Center with a three evening concert program “Abbey Lincoln: Over the Years - An Anthology of ...

Abbey Lincoln: Over the Years

By Mathew Bahl

Abbey Lincoln's career has always been one marked by constant growth and self-discovery. Over the course of her first five albums, beginning with 1956's Abbey Lincoln's Affair: A Story of a Girl in Love and ending with 1961's Straight Ahead, she transformed herself from a conventional pop singer into an intensely dramatic jazz singer. However, Ms. Lincoln soon found herself caught up in the profound social and musical changes that swept America in the 1960s. She spent the next three ...

Abbey Lincoln: Over the Years

By Dave Nathan

During the 1960's Abbey Lincoln successfully combined political activism with a busy, successful career. After divorcing husband drummer Max Roach, the 1970's and 1980's found her relegated to the back burner of the entertainment world although she was still recording, mostly for Indie labels. Then came Stan Getz who recommended her to Verve Records and who played on Lincoln's so-called “comeback album", the successful You Gotta Pay the Band. Since then, she has been restored to her rightful place as ...

Abbey Lincoln: Wholly Earth

By Jim Santella

Swaying gently and confidently, singer Abbey Lincoln possesses a voice and singing style like no other. When she’s hanging behind the beat, gently rasping heartfelt expression, or sliding around the pitch, the singer is in complete control of her performance and is offering it in her own sweet way. Bobby Hutcherson joins Lincoln on this latest project, bringing in the vibraphone for a traditional mainstream jazz feeling and opting for marimba when a mellower touch is required. She can shock ...

Abbey Lincoln: Who Used To Dance

By Jim Santella

Abbey Lincoln is different. Although strongly influenced by Billie Holiday's dramatic feel for and presentation of a song's message, and embedded in bebop through her eight-year marriage to drummer Max Roach, the singer maintains her own distinctive manner of delivering a lyric. Seven of the nine tracks on Who Used To Dance are ballads that serve to demonstrate the graininess in Lincoln's voice, the long, tied-together whole note phrases, and the carefully articulated words; these are some of the characteristics ...