Abbey Lincoln Great Women Singers of the 20th Century

Abbey Lincoln was born Anna Marie Wooldridge in 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. She was raised in rural Michigan and began playing piano at a very young age. With a career that includes a respected film career and many years of singing, she has now emerged as the preeminent woman jazz singer working today. A living legend who, through her determined sense of self and insight has also become a poet and composer of definitive musical compositions that other singers, including Cassandra Wilson, are now also recording.

Abbey Lincoln's early influences were Billie Holiday and Lena Horne. Like them, she fought to not let her stunning beauty over shadow her gifts as a singer and musical performer. She recorded her first album "Abbey Lincoln's Affair" in 1956. After a few movie roles, she became, through her marriage to jazz great Max Roach, a musical presence in the world of jazz in New York City. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Abbey was rarely seen or heard in performance. However in 1990, Verve released "The World Is Falling Down" which propelled her back to stardom. In 1991, "You Gotta Pay The Band" secured her place as an important, definitive jazz singer and composer.

This theater performance, taped in 1991 at the Promenade Theater in New York City, has never been seen in its entirety. Presented "in the round," Abbey Lincoln, looking exquisite and backed by a jazz quintet including saxophonist Steve Coleman, offers a fresh choice of original compositions including "Bird Alone" and "When I'm Called Home" as well as standards like the telling "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?"

Wife of jazz legend Max Roach and an outstanding singer in her own right, Abbey Lincoln began her musical career in the late 1950s. Her debut album--ABBEY'S LINCOLN AFFAIR--was followed by a string of recorded releases, but it's in a live setting that she really excels. This concert is from 1991, and was part of a comeback staged by Lincoln after her lengthy hiatus from the business in the 1980s. Shot at the Promenade Theater in New York City, and backed by an accomplished quartet, the concert finds the inimitable Abbey Lincoln is in fine voice.