Abbey Lincoln

Abbey Lincoln is an enigma. Critically acclaimed as a singer and actress, she has never received broad-based public acceptance. "Abbey Lincoln: You Gotta Pay the Band" (at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28, and Friday at 8 p.m. on KVCR-TV Channel 24) is an hourlong documentary by producer-director Gene A. Davis and writer Ifa Bayeza that tries to explain Lincoln's life of artistic ups and downs, but leaves viewers with unanswered questions.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, whose career spanned six decades and included acting, composing and participation in the U.S. civil rights movement, died on Saturday at age 80, The New York Times reported. Lincoln, who was often said to have been strongly influenced by famed jazz singer Billie Holiday, died at her Manhattan apartment, the Times said, citing her brother David Wooldridge. Starting in the mid-1950s with "Abbey Lincoln's Affair...a Story of a Girl in Love," the Chicago-born Lincoln enjoyed a long and acclaimed singing career.

Abbey Lincoln's career has taken many turns. As an actress in movies ("For Love of Ivy"), in television and as a drama teacher at Cal State Northridge she has earned countless credits, yet her primary image has always been that of a singer. Now based in New York, she returned Tuesday for a six-day booking at the Vine St. Bar & Grill. Any evaluation of Lincoln after a long absence must involve a special question: How does she look?

Singers, singers, singers--they just keep coming. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, because vocalists--often more so than instrumentalists--can be the conduits that lead listeners into the full experience of jazz. The best most recent example, of course, is Diana Krall, but there are plenty of other gifted singers on the scene. Here's a look at a few who have new releases out this month. *** 1/2 Abbey Lincoln, "Over the Years" (Verve).

The number 70 can have a daunting effect on most people, especially when it is attached to a birthday that generally serves as a passage into serious senior citizenship. But not for Abbey Lincoln, who has been celebrating the arrival of her eighth decade Aug. 6 with a new album and a series of live performances with her trio. On Wednesday, she was the opening-act headliner for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Tonight, she kicks off a rare (and too-brief) weekend run at the Jazz Bakery.

Some performers keep scrapbooks of their past; Abbey Lincoln keeps history books. In her uptown Manhattan apartment, the jazz singer emerges from the study bearing two thick, black ring binders that she sets down on the dining room table. The carefully preserved press clippings between their covers record a life that has shifted gears as dramatically as the society around it. At first Anna Marie Wooldridge becomes Gaby Lee, a coquettish and beautiful 1950s supper club singer.

ABBEY LINCOLN "A Turtle's Dream" Verve * * * The dark, complex web of Abbey Lincoln's music is intimately revealed in this new CD, which includes nine of her original songs. The unrelenting intensity of her vision colors everything, and there is little variation in that intensity--whether a tune is about the pleasures of love in "My Love Is You" or the pains of "Should've Been."

ABBEY LINCOLN "Devil's Got Your Tongue" Verve * * * All but two of the 11 songs here were written by Lincoln, mostly in the 1970s. Some have autobiographical overtones: "Story of My Father" and "Evalina Coffey" were dedicated to her parents. Lincoln's lyrics sometimes involve colorful imagery; at given moments they are poetic, cryptic or simplistic, with melodies that are mainly functional adjuncts.

Singers, singers, singers--they just keep coming. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, because vocalists--often more so than instrumentalists--can be the conduits that lead listeners into the full experience of jazz. The best most recent example, of course, is Diana Krall, but there are plenty of other gifted singers on the scene. Here's a look at a few who have new releases out this month. *** 1/2 Abbey Lincoln, "Over the Years" (Verve).

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, whose career spanned six decades and included acting, composing and participation in the U.S. civil rights movement, died on Saturday at age 80, The New York Times reported. Lincoln, who was often said to have been strongly influenced by famed jazz singer Billie Holiday, died at her Manhattan apartment, the Times said, citing her brother David Wooldridge. Starting in the mid-1950s with "Abbey Lincoln's Affair...a Story of a Girl in Love," the Chicago-born Lincoln enjoyed a long and acclaimed singing career.

The number 70 can have a daunting effect on most people, especially when it is attached to a birthday that generally serves as a passage into serious senior citizenship. But not for Abbey Lincoln, who has been celebrating the arrival of her eighth decade Aug. 6 with a new album and a series of live performances with her trio. On Wednesday, she was the opening-act headliner for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Tonight, she kicks off a rare (and too-brief) weekend run at the Jazz Bakery.

ABBEY LINCOLN "A Turtle's Dream" Verve * * * The dark, complex web of Abbey Lincoln's music is intimately revealed in this new CD, which includes nine of her original songs. The unrelenting intensity of her vision colors everything, and there is little variation in that intensity--whether a tune is about the pleasures of love in "My Love Is You" or the pains of "Should've Been."

Some performers keep scrapbooks of their past; Abbey Lincoln keeps history books. In her uptown Manhattan apartment, the jazz singer emerges from the study bearing two thick, black ring binders that she sets down on the dining room table. The carefully preserved press clippings between their covers record a life that has shifted gears as dramatically as the society around it. At first Anna Marie Wooldridge becomes Gaby Lee, a coquettish and beautiful 1950s supper club singer.

Abbey Lincoln is an enigma. Critically acclaimed as a singer and actress, she has never received broad-based public acceptance. "Abbey Lincoln: You Gotta Pay the Band" (at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28, and Friday at 8 p.m. on KVCR-TV Channel 24) is an hourlong documentary by producer-director Gene A. Davis and writer Ifa Bayeza that tries to explain Lincoln's life of artistic ups and downs, but leaves viewers with unanswered questions.

ABBEY LINCOLN "Devil's Got Your Tongue" Verve * * * All but two of the 11 songs here were written by Lincoln, mostly in the 1970s. Some have autobiographical overtones: "Story of My Father" and "Evalina Coffey" were dedicated to her parents. Lincoln's lyrics sometimes involve colorful imagery; at given moments they are poetic, cryptic or simplistic, with melodies that are mainly functional adjuncts.

Abbey Lincoln's career has taken many turns. As an actress in movies ("For Love of Ivy"), in television and as a drama teacher at Cal State Northridge she has earned countless credits, yet her primary image has always been that of a singer. Now based in New York, she returned Tuesday for a six-day booking at the Vine St. Bar & Grill. Any evaluation of Lincoln after a long absence must involve a special question: How does she look?

Tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet's big band headlined Saturday's "Jazz for Rights and Humanity" at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, a fund-raiser to support international human rights. Other musicians in the lineup included Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Randy Weston, Mongo Santamaria, Terrence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Chuck Green and Jimmy Witherspoon and singers Abbey Lincoln, Cissy Houston, Ruth Brown and Jon Hendricks.

*** Dianne Reeves, "Art and Survival," EMI/Capitol. This multitextured experiment, with its frequent spiritual-based stories, is Reeves' most ambitious effort. Her lyrics and/or music for several of the songs were collaborations with her producer, Eddie Del Barrio. The words range from touchingly evocative ("Old Souls" and "Come to the River") to slightly pretentious ("Endangered Species").