Remembering Abbey Lincoln

Today is Abbey Lincoln's birthday. She passed in 2010, but I only learned about her music in the last few years. Lincoln's certainly one of the most distinctive and talented jazz vocalists in the genre's history, and deserves to be mentioned up there with Billie, Ella, Sarah, and Dinah. She was even in my favorite Spike Lee film, Mo' Betta Blues. Her take on "Lonely House" is definitive. 

An Evening with Abbey Lincoln

The inimitable and unforgettable Abbey Lincoln, a beautiful jazz singer with a perfect voice. Though perhaps better known for her marriage and work with fellow radical jazz artist Max Roach, Lincoln was a talented artist in her own right with numerous worthwhile songs, including Strong Man, Let Up, Lonely House, Afro Blue, Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, When Malindy Sings, Lost In the Stars, etc. Rest in peace, Abbey Lincoln. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB2VUUEEcco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXtY_APMKWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spqjGLG7B-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ_aWNVW1w4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBQYdp6pdqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AdEUekAoIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceMqHPRlA20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOv9GEtltwY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7w8Wb5_aZA

Abbey Lincoln's That's Him!

Abbey Lincoln’s 1957 That’s Him! is a wonderful delight. Opening with the slow, “Strong Man,” where Lincoln sings about her love for a large, dark, muscled, and shining man who folds around her. “Hair crisped tight and curly and cropped kinda close” indicates beyond a doubt, that Lincoln is singing in honour of the black male physiognomy, which, in 1958, was quite unheard of for lyrical material. In addition, her light-hearted tone and with the fun, black conscious lyrics from Oscar Brown, is enhanced by some soloing spaces for Kenny Dorham and Sonny Rollins, the latter going first through melodious runs. “Picture a lover like this” is Lincoln’s obvious, and rather direct, appreciation of black love. Thus, even before her closer relationship and marriage with Max Roach (who drums on this album), Lincoln was already engaged in her own pro-black sentiment and art, as well as choosing material that she would want, not predominantly white standards or apolitical work. “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe” is another love song for a man, but with perfect piano comping while she lithely exudes notes through the mountainous curve of the song’s melody. “When he kisses me it’s Christmas everywhere” also indicates her willingness not to shy from sensuality, especially when her voice rises and falls. The question of a reciprocated love is still unknown, alas, but perhaps the potential unrequited love only improves the song until Rollins blows away another pretty solo. Then Lincoln’s soaring, unique voice also rises, becoming louder while maintaining the melismas necessary  to keep things from becoming boring. As one would expect from a jazz vocalist who can actually sing and emote, the listener is overcome with desire for Lincoln’s Joe to return her love.

She even pays tribute to Billie Holiday, singing “My Man” and “Don’t Explain.” The former is similar to some of Holiday’s 1950s recordings, with a very bare arrangement, centred on piano and voice. It’s a song full of despair, distress, and, clearly, self-inflicted domestic abuse to a certain degree since Lincoln, like Holiday, sings, “What’s the difference if I say I’ll go away when I know I’ll be back on my knees someday.” The band does a great job, however, providing the necessary atmosphere for the heart-breaking piece. Somehow, “Tender As a Rose,” a standard on a woman’s beauty, is just Lincoln’s vocals, and it evades the realm of boredom! Lincoln, always experimental and a risk-taker , does quite well without the band, showing that her voice stands alone. Next, “That’s Him!,” the title track, is another torch ballad love song, but one in which Lincoln defiantly proclaims who the man she loves is, instead of allowing herself to be claimed or described as an object of desire in some other songs. “Wonderful world, wonderful youth, that’s him, that’s him” and the stunning band accompaniment, such as Dorham’s muted trumpet, keeps things interesting, too. Lincoln, near the song’s end, injects some blues phrasing, too, showing individuality and her own personality in her interpretation of standard material. For “I Must Have That Man,” another standard well-sung by Holiday, begins with just percussion in response to Lincoln’s vocals. Another song obviously about love for a man, has Roach swinging joyously and the rest of the band joins it, adding some bop to the standard fare while Lincoln’s vocal phrasing, almost conversational, keeps up until Dorham’s solo. Then, after the instrumental break, Lincoln sings while the horns and piano provide back-up, sounding exquisitely jazzy with a big sound, reminding me of some of the songs from Dinah Jams. Despite Lincoln’s desire for a man who may reject her, the song gives the impression that she will be fine, however, if she does not have him, perhaps reflecting her boredom with so many of the misogynistic torch songs and ballads female jazz singers have been forced into recording, though the alternate take, in my opinion, is more soulfully bluesy with band accompaniment after the instrumental. Regardless, Lincoln makes it quite clear at the end she will have that man, and not be helpless and wait for male authority.

“Porgy,” standard material from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, is another ballad, which excels. With well-written lyrics from Gershwin, the song is delightful to hear. The instrumental improvisation from Dorham’s trumpet is ‘cute’ as well, though Lincoln’s vocal remains the highlight by far. “He’s got a good kind of love for me, changing my style and way of living, glad I stopped taking and starting giving, I got a man, I got Porgy now.” The alternate take surprisingly seems to feature even more melisma and fervour. The penultimate track, “When a Woman Loves a Man,” is a standard with sexist lyrics about how a woman in love wants to live her life for her man while men do not practice love that way. Nevertheless, things turn out to be a little bluesy with the band accompaniment, especially Sonny Rollins playing behind her and the pianist. “She’ll just string along all through sick and thin ‘til his ship comes in” continues the theme of the selfless, woman in love, who will be the first to praise him when he’s going strong, the last one to blame him when everything’s wrong, it’s such a one-sided game they play, but women are funny that way.” It’s hard to believe Lincoln ever believing this drivel, but she sings it in a seemingly sarcastic way with the moving band, showing off her blues shout at the song’s end. But all good things must come to an end, and “Don’t Explain,” by Billie Holiday, a song for a lover cheating on her, continues the theme of the selfless, tragic lover abused and scorned by men. Dorham and the bassist perform exceedingly well, here, particularly the former’s smooth solo. The walking bassline, soft swing, and Dorham’s mournful trumpet create an atmosphere of hushed talk, silent rage, and torn love. Thus, though not quite reaching the heights of Abbey Is Blue, this album is a powerful reminder of Lincoln’s already unique voice and style.

Abbey Lincoln's Abbey Is Blue

A fascinating vocal jazz album, Lincoln and the band play sparse, reserved music with some Afrocentric and political themes and content, especially “Afro Blue,” wherein Lincoln sings about an African prince and is nearly as good as any instrumental recording from Coltrane or Santamaria. Though lacking strong, obvious Afro-Cuban rhythms because the drummer plays so silently, Lincoln’s lyrics are beautiful, “shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, Afro Blue.” The song asserts pride and sensuality, a defense of blackness as beautiful, which, for 1959, was quite rare in popular culture. Her horrifying, solitary voice on “Lonely House” is quite soothing and depressing, but sheer delight in her range. “Funny, with so many neighbors, how lonely it can be!” Clearly, there is some political meaning to the lyric here beyond the universal feelings of loneliness anyone feels, perhaps a reflection on the loneliness of urban living, too, but also African-American ‘loneliness’ in the US under Jim Crow segregation from alienation from mainstream America? The lyrics were written by Langston Hughes, so I shall leave the interpretation up to you. Some songs use elements of the blues, such as “Let Up,” a stirring number with, again, muted accompaniment and excellent saxophone back up. “Sure enough fed up” of course entails not only anger in personal relationships, or life, but, naturally, the political climate at the time. Though nothing is as “out there” or avant-garde as her screaming on Max Roach’s We Insist!—Fredom Now but this is definitely unique when compared to most vocal jazz of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her rendition of songs like “Thursday’s Child” are quite emotive, deep, and, at times, sounds something like Billie Holiday on more mysterious, sinister-toned songs like “No More,” itself a rather unusual jazz ballad with an ominous tone. Likewise, Lincoln, who, alas, passed away in recent years while never relenting on her dedication to the civil rights movement and black power, channels Holiday. The relaxed feel of the band and their rather muted performance enhances the solitude and loneliness of the piece, accentuating Lincoln’s strong voice, vocal range, and, at times, haunting beauty. My favorite song, “Brother, Where Are You,” a composition of Oscar Brown, who wrote lyrics for Max Roach, begins on a dark note with spiritual, pleading vocals from Lincoln, searching for her brother. “Brother, where are you, they said you came this way. The simple piano accompaniment is played beautifully and is reminiscent of church hymns, something I am sure was intended by Lincoln. This “brother” seems to be despised, nobody wanting to answer his call or help, perhaps a reference to the African-American civil rights movement, lost in 1959. The flautist ends it perfectly, too.

“Laugh, Clown, Laugh” is a cute, light-hearted track where Lincoln’s vocals evoke laughter. “You’re supposed to brighten up the place, and laugh clown, laugh, clown” suggests an attempt to raise and lighten spirits after the sorrowful “Brother, Where Are You.” We even hear some swing, a walking bassline, and more uplifting horns. “Don’t let your heart grow too mellow, just be a real punginello fellow,” as well as other lyrics, are fun puns and suggest that perhaps the listener is the clown, or, to read this as a ‘political’ subtext, perhaps satirically referring to the expectation that black musicians and entertainers play the “coon” and foolishly perpetuate negative stereotypes and caricatures for white audiences, especially as she says, “go on creating those false impressions, never let your looks be too revealing.” Similarly, Charles Mingus’s “The Clown,” incorporating poetry, has also been read by some as an allusion to race strife and identity in 1950s America. Subsequently, “Come Sunday,” Ellington’s tribute to God, includes lyrics by Lincoln that are unquestionably, like the gospel and spirituals that sustained resistance, a tribute to the moral justification and campaigns for equality across the US. Her vocal style, perfect with balladry and, as mentioned previously, emoting, calling for God’s assistance. “And love will bloom at springtime, birds will sing” implies a hopeful optimism. “Come Sunday, oh, come Sunday…”

“Softly As in a Morning Sunrise” begins with just light swing and Lincoln’s solitary voice, “for the passions that thrill love and lift you high to heaven, are the passions that kill love and let you fall to Hell.” As a warning song, a premonition, it conveys the danger of love that can come and go quickly, which, as for previous songs, could easily be interpreted politically for Blacks to not take the recent progress as a given and realize things could worsen despite their ‘love’ and non-violent protests. The bassist perfectly accompanies her, and the instrumental sections also echo her theme of danger in optimism, danger in love. She improvises herself with the melody and lyrics of the song at its conclusion, showing her range and dexterity again. As for “Lost in Stars,” a more conventional jazz ballad and a standard, sounds majestic with Lincoln’s soaring, booming, and well-paced voice. “Well the lord God hunted, through the wild night air, for the little lost star on the wind…” sounds heavenly while the light accompaniment from the band allows one to focus entirely on Lincoln’s voice as an instrument. “Well, I’ve been walking, through the night and day, and then my eyes grow weary and my head turns gray, and sometimes I think, maybe God’s gone away, forgetting his promise, and words he’d say, and we’re lost out here in stars…blowing through the night, and we’re lost out here in the stars.” Again, this is another song with a potentially dark, ominous relationship to African Americans, who, like Lincoln in this song, are lost in the stars, waiting for a God who has forsaken or forgotten her. Lincoln concludes the album with “Long As You’re Living,” a swinging number where she has this sing-talk quality to her lyric, for a strange-sounding composition. “They say the truth will make you free, and that’s the way you want to be, Brother, this is your life.” Lincoln’s song, slightly ‘avant-garde’ perhaps by vocal jazz standards, makes the song a warning for self-improvement and to live every minute, an inspirational song urging people to exert agency and take their lives in their own hands. Of course, the rather quirky chorus and horn arrangement and the political climate in 1959 make this an obvious reference to the Black Freedom Struggle. Note the use of the term “brother,” for instance, another marker of African American vernacular English widely used by Lincoln. Thus, her entire album, marking the beginning of a career away from simple acting roles and jazz-pop, Lincoln makes subtle and not-so-subtle references to the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement and an uncertain political climate. Even better for us, the listeners, her vocal style, range, arrangements, and lyrics are brilliantly conceived and delivered, making for a vocal jazz album with infinite repeatable listens and, for those in the mood for late night ‘blues,’ an excellent way to conclude the night.