The Jazz Museum in Harlem

104 E. 126th Street • Suite 2D • New York, NY 10035

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Jazz for Curious Listeners
Black History Month: The Women, Abbey Lincoln
February 19, 2013

We celebrate Black History Month by focusing on four women who broke boundaries by their sheer genius and talent. Please join us for these evening programs where you will not only hear great music, but learn something new about these American icons. Abbey Lincoln gave up a promising career as a pin-up styled jazz singer in the mid-1950's to pursue a career exploring the depths of the African-American experience, in partnership with her husband Max Roach, and a long series of equally distinguished musical partners. She was also a composer of the first-water, as well as an exceptional, if occasional actress.

Abbey Lincoln began performing professionally in the early 1950s, using the names Anna Marie, Gaby Lee, and Gaby Wooldridge. In 1956, after taking the name Abbey Lincoln, she made her first recording, with Benny Carter's orchestra. Shortly afterwards, she recorded as the leader of a group that included Sonny Rollins and Max Roach. In the late 1950s she began writing songs and also started working as an actress. From 1962 to 1970 she was married to Roach, through whom she met many leading musicians, including Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. At this time she was influenced by them to explore a wider range of vocal techniques, and began to use a richer poetic style and greater cultural and political content in her songs. She became a strong public advocate for racial equality, and this issue was reflected in her lyrics, and in the energy, boldness, and, at times, violence of her vocal style. In the late 1960s, her career as an actress took on new impetus, and she appeared in several films. In 1975, she visited Africa, where the names Aminata and Moseka were conferred upon her by politicians in Guinea and Zaire respectively. She continued to perform and tour in the mid-1980s and has returned to the warm, gentle style that characterized her early work.

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