Abbey Lincoln: Pure Emotion 'It's Me' album

Abbey Lincoln is one of America's most prolific and spellbinding vocalists and composers. Her commitment to full freedom of expression and the power of authenticity, her emotive conviction, is central to her impressive body of work.

An acclaimed film star and an accomplished painter, as well as jazz singer, composer and poet of the highest caliber, Lincoln is one of the truly enthralling artists of our time. With the release of her tenth recording for the Verve label, It's Me, she proves, once again, she's got something important to sing about: this time, it's praise for the music.

Few vocalists can rival (Abbey Lincoln's) ability to convey pure emotion by turns rueful, reflective and exultant. - Time magazine

Her long-time musical friends, producers Jean-Philippe Allard and Daniel Richard, once again helped shepherd this release. Lincoln is joined by pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Jaz Sawyer, with Julien Lourau (tenor and soprano saxophone) and James Spaulding (flute and alto saxophone) contributing to several tracks. Orchestral arrangements and conducting by Laurent Cugny and Alan Broadbent add a lushly elegant feel to seven of the eleven tunes on It's Me.

"The players are all brilliant, avant garde, right there. We inherit a lot being the guardians of this music, and it's not a small thing. Music lives forever," she says, "and we live through the work we bring."

From the opening strings of the romantic ballad, "Skylark," penned by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, to this set's closer, "Can You Dig It?", the music on It's Me is like a multi-faceted gem shooting out sparks, a story-filled portrait of an artist at the peak of her interpretative powers. The music, says Lincoln, poured out naturally and, before she even realized it, she had created a unified statement in praise of music. "I had a chance to sing about it, I didn't sit and plot. There's a spirit that goes with me and hears before I hear," she says. "I'm being blessed in my elder years."

A spirit that 'goes before' imbues Lincoln's performance of the traditional

African-American spiritual, "It's Me", with the spare grace of humility, longing and pride in an elemental duet with pianist Kenny Barron. Barron's elegant soulfulness, impeccable taste and musical depth make him an ideal partner for Lincoln's profound and poetic sensibility.

Abbey Lincoln, born Anna Marie Wooldridge in 1930, won an amateur contest for singing at 19 and made her first recording in 1955 (Abbey Lincoln's Affair .

. . A Story of a Girl in Love, Liberty Records), backed by Benny Carter. She recorded several important albums of her own for the Riverside and Candid labels, and collaborated on a host of other recordings, most notably drummer Max Roach's Civil Rights era milestone, We Insist!: Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960), with Oscar Brown, Jr., and Coleman Hawkins. During this period, Lincoln also co-starred in the 1964 film Nothing But a Man, called "a small gem" by movie critic Leonard Maltin, and in 1966's For The Love of Ivy, with Sidney Poitier. She began writing her own tunes in the 1970s, and has since composed originals for all her albums, notably on her critically-acclaimed CDs for Verve since 1990. It's Me includes five of her original songs, including two collaborations.

When Lincoln composed "Love Is Made," here graced by Lourau's sultry romantic tenor saxophone, she was referring to of the misleading nature of the phrase "let's make love." "Love is already made. That's the reality," she says. "If you don't embrace it, you're bound for disillusionment. There is love, and all that remains is what we do with it." "Chateau de Joux (Castle of the Forest)" was inspired by the history of an ancient castle between France and Switzerland where Lincoln gave a performance. Chateau de Joux was the prison where the Haitian leader/liberator Toussaint L'Ouverture perished after Napoleon betrayed him and sent him to its dungeons. Lincoln commented, "He died for his country, Haiti, and there was a heavy spirit there which I tried to capture in this song."

"They Call It Jazz," Lincoln's newest original on the CD, is her soulful and pointed homage to the music that explores the contradictory perceptions of jazz and puts it in a spiritual context . . . "They call it jazz, a soulful sound/A melody the spirit found/Within the heart, the human breast/ A song of love, of happiness/They call it jazz, arazzamatazz! " "Jazz is a misnomer," she says. "Now, more than ever, we need an understanding of what this music is exactly." In a similar spirit "Through the Years" is a poignant appreciation that has the definitive imprint of a classic, though it was written only a few years ago by Lincoln and the young South African pianist, Bheki Mseleku, with whom she first recorded it in France. " She says simply. "It was written in praise of the music."

"Can You Dig It?" was inspired by a conversation with Lincoln's then-eight-year-old nephew, Darryl Wooldridge. " He said, 'Is to be or not to be really a question?', he knew that at eight years old!" she exclaims. The playful tune and its bluesy insights closes the disc. Many of Lincoln's family members were talented musicians but she was the only one who came to the stage. It's Me includes Lincoln's penetrating rendition of "The Search", a longing ode to love written by her brother, Robert Wooldridge, who was a lawyer and judge.

Throughout her career, Lincoln has also been an unequaled interpreter of standards, who has often been compared with Billie Holiday for her unique and powerful renditions of other writers' songs as well as her own. Of "Skylark", which opens the disc, Lincoln remarks, "When I first came to the stage as a singer, before beginning to write my own tunes, this was the caliber of music that was being made. Great musicians and singers were interpreting the great lyricists and composers. I had heard this tune but never sung it before this recording."

In her own songwriting, as well as in her interpretations of standards, Lincoln leaves behind the clich?s of romantic love and concerns herself with existential questions. "Yellow Bird," by the calypso great Irving Burgie, was first popularized by Harry Belafonte in 1957 with alternate lyrics as "Don't Ever Love Me". Lincoln performs Burgie's original lyrics, which question a talking "yellow bird" about the mysteries of life, with a moving sense of wonder and longing.

Lincoln's treatment of "Runnin' Wild," a tune originally sung by Marilyn Monroe onscreen, is a spirited warning to "the youngsters nowadays, 'outta control, mighty bold' it's a dangerous place to go," she says, speaking a few choice words from the lyrics.

"A breath of life, a glow," are the final words in Cedar Walton's beautiful tribute to Duke Ellington, and Lincoln's vocals linger, as does Ellington's legacy. "Cedar told me he wrote 'The Maestro' on a plane to Japan when he heard Duke had passed. I first recorded it with Cedar in L.A. back in the'70s," Lincoln recalls, "and when Kenny Barron and I recorded it for It's Me, it was like magic, it formed itself. We didn't discuss key; we just recorded it. This was my first recording where the music just came this way. I didn't have to labor for it, there was no worry, it was all there."

Lincoln has distilled herself and her art to a fine essence, becoming so uniquely herself that she rings with universal truth. It's Me is essential Abbey Lincoln - crackling with life, sacred glee, poetic insight, and clear-eyed wisdom - a mesmerizing portrait of an artist in her prime.

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Abbey Lincoln: Pure Emotion - It's Me