Abbey Is Blue

About

In jazz’s story of continuous change and reinvention, some artists and eras stand out as uniquely transformative. Abbey Lincoln began her career in the early '50s as a supper club singer of torch songs; her striking beauty made it convenient for record labels to market her as a kind of black Marilyn Monroe. But it didn’t take long for Lincoln to realize she wanted something more, especially after meeting future husband and legendary drummer Max Roach, who encouraged her to branch out in her musical repertoire and style. On 1959's <i>Abbey Is Blue</i>, Lincoln does just that. This masterpiece of self-expression captures Lincoln perfectly poised between jazz for show and jazz as serious as your life. Here Lincoln leaves behind sentimental he-done-me-wrong songs for melancholy narratives that take a deep look at life’s meaning. Ocean deep: “Sometimes it seems maybe God’s gone away,” she sings on Kurt Weill’s “Lost in the Stars,” as if she’s the only human left on earth to ponder it. Lincoln’s nascent black pride is evident in her treatment of Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue,” which stands up to John Coltrane’s famous versions of the tune. Lincoln avoids Sarah Vaughan-style grandeur and Ella Fitzgerald-style improvisation. Like Billie Holiday, Lincoln's secret weapon is directness, though a late-'50s free-jazz influence loosens her phrasing into a less mannered and more conversational flow while sharpening up her rhythmic sense. Lincoln’s eventual move toward composing her own material is presaged in “Let Up,” which features her first original lyrics to appear on record. Critically, her bandmates here are more than able to support her phenomenal artistic growth: There’s Philly Joe Jones and Roach on drums, and soloists such as trumpeter Kenny Dorham and pianists Wynton Kelly and Cedar Walton. Recognizing Lincoln’s musical worth, they don’t relegate the singer to an ornamental role, but engage her as a true member of the band. It’s ideal material masterfully rendered, not least of all due to Lincoln’s astonishing emotional depth. Among melancholy-themed albums, <i>Abbey Is Blue</i> belongs somewhere between Sinatra’s <i>Only the Lonely</i> and Joni Mitchell’s <i>Blue</i>; its influence can be felt all the way up to contemporary jazz singers like Cassandra Wilson and Jazzmeia Horn. Just a couple years later, Lincoln would be the fully self-determined artist of <i>Straight Ahead</i>, and the voice of Roach’s polemical black power album <i>Freedom Now Suite</i>. <i>Abbey Is Blue</i> shows the artist doing as much as one humanly can with other people’s songs before moving on to create her own.

via Apple Music