Biography

As with her hero Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln was a dramatic performer whose interpretations were full of truth and insight. She recorded with Benny Carter in 1956, and debuted on Riverside one year later. She was quite memorable on Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, and the two were married in 1962 (an association that lasted until 1970). Her Candid date Straight Ahead (1961) had among its players Roach, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy, and Coleman Hawkins. Her pair of Billie Holiday tributes in 1987 showed listeners that the singer was still in her prime, and she recorded several excellent sets for Verve in the 1990s. ~ Scott Yanow

Top Tracks

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• A Child Is Born

• A Heart Is Not A Toy

• Africa

• African Lady

• Afro Blue

• Afro-blue

• And It's Supposed To Be Love

• Bird Alone

• Blackberry Blossoms

• Blue Monk

• Come Sunday

• Crazy He Calls Me

• Don't Explain

• Gimme A Pigfoot (and A Bottle Of Beer)

• Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe

• Hi-fly

• How High The Moon (la Lune Est Grise...mon Coeur Aussi)

• I Am In Love

• I Must Have That Man

• I Must Have That Man!

• If I Only Had A Brain

• It's Magic

• Laugh, Clown, Laugh

• Little Niles

• Lonesome Lover

• Love Has Gone Away

• Love Is Made

• Love What You're Doin' Down There

• Mr. Tambourine Man

• Out Of The Past

• People In Me

• Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone

• Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise

• Soul Eyes

• The Jitterbug Waltz

• The Maestro

• The Music Is The Magic

• The Windmills Of Your Mind

• The World Is Falling Down

• Through The Years

• Up Jumped Spring

• Who Used To Dance

• You Won't Forget Me

Discography

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• Abbey Sings Abbey

  Verve

  2007

• It's Me

  Verve

  2003

• Over the Years

  Universal Division Jazz / Verve

  2000

• Wholly Earth

  Verve / Polygram

  1999

• You & I

  Jazzfest

  1997

• Who Used to Dance

  Universal Distribution / Verve

  1996

• Painted Lady

  ITM

  1995

• A Turtle's Dream

  Verve / Polygram

  1994

• Devil's Got Your Tongue

  Verve

  1993

• When There Is Love

  Verve / PolyGram

  1992

• The World Is Falling Down

  Verve

  1991

• You Gotta Pay the Band

  Verve

  1991

• A Tribute to Billie Holiday

  Enja

  1987

• Abbey Sings Billie, Vol. 2

  Enja

  1987

• Abbey Sings Billie, Vol. 1

  Enja

  1987

• Talking to the Sun

  Enja

  1983

• Golden Lady

  Inner City

  1980

• People in Me

  Verve / Polygram

  1973

• Sounds as a Roach

  Lotus

  1968

• Straight Ahead

  Candid

  1961

• Abbey Is Blue

  Original Jazz Classics / Riverside/OJC

  1959

• It's Magic

  Riverside/OJC

  1958

• That's Him

  Concord / Original Jazz Classics

  1957

• Abbey Lincoln's Affair, A Story of a Girl in Love

  Capitol/EMI Records / Blue Note

  1957