Prairie Dog
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If Patrick Murtha can have a separate thread devoted to the obscure actor Maury Chaykin, why not applaud the late GREAT jazz singer and actress, Abbey Lincoln. The forever young Miss Lincoln, left us this Saturday, at age 80.
"Launched as a seductive chanteuse, she was known as "the black Marilyn Monroe". Abbey Lincoln cut records and acted in films in the 1950s and 1960s, when she was depicted on album covers in slinky dresses, and appeared briefly in a Jayne Mansfield film wearing the revealing gown worn by Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She saw her career revive in the 1990s when she found success as a prolific songwriter.
Early in her career her rich, sustained contralto register – sometimes pierced by sudden impassioned cries – echoed the style of her idol Billie Holiday; in turn it inspired a generation of younger artists such as Cassandra Wilson.
Abbey Lincoln acted with Sidney Poitier and collaborated musically with the jazz drummer Max Roach, whom she married in 1962 and later divorced. Under Roach's influence, she repudiated her earlier glamorous image in favour of a more radical one, campaigning for civil rights, dressing in African-style clothes, wearing her hair Afro-style and infusing her music with a more political edge. Abbey's career waned in the 1970s and 1980s, after her divorce from Max Roach. She recorded on small independent labels, but found new fame in 1990 when she signed with Verve Records and released The World Is Falling Down, an album featuring such jazz stars as the pianist Hank Jones and the trumpeter Clark Terry.
In the early 1990s Abbey Lincoln released chart-topping albums including You Gotta Pay the Band (1991), which she recorded with Stan Getz, and Devil's Got Your Tongue (1992), in which she rebuked some rappers, comedians and film makers for profiting from the coarsening of black culture. Explaining her image change, Abbey Lincoln recalled being featured on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1957 as "The Girl in Marilyn Monroe's Dress" and said her appearance had threatened to undermine her career. "People in the audience were looking at my exposed breasts and the shape of my body, and it didn't have nothing to do with the music... "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries
R.I.P. Abbey Lincoln (August 6, 1930 -- August 14, 2010). Expression, diction and projection in abundance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtU-lL02flg
"Launched as a seductive chanteuse, she was known as "the black Marilyn Monroe". Abbey Lincoln cut records and acted in films in the 1950s and 1960s, when she was depicted on album covers in slinky dresses, and appeared briefly in a Jayne Mansfield film wearing the revealing gown worn by Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She saw her career revive in the 1990s when she found success as a prolific songwriter.
Early in her career her rich, sustained contralto register – sometimes pierced by sudden impassioned cries – echoed the style of her idol Billie Holiday; in turn it inspired a generation of younger artists such as Cassandra Wilson.
Abbey Lincoln acted with Sidney Poitier and collaborated musically with the jazz drummer Max Roach, whom she married in 1962 and later divorced. Under Roach's influence, she repudiated her earlier glamorous image in favour of a more radical one, campaigning for civil rights, dressing in African-style clothes, wearing her hair Afro-style and infusing her music with a more political edge. Abbey's career waned in the 1970s and 1980s, after her divorce from Max Roach. She recorded on small independent labels, but found new fame in 1990 when she signed with Verve Records and released The World Is Falling Down, an album featuring such jazz stars as the pianist Hank Jones and the trumpeter Clark Terry.
In the early 1990s Abbey Lincoln released chart-topping albums including You Gotta Pay the Band (1991), which she recorded with Stan Getz, and Devil's Got Your Tongue (1992), in which she rebuked some rappers, comedians and film makers for profiting from the coarsening of black culture. Explaining her image change, Abbey Lincoln recalled being featured on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1957 as "The Girl in Marilyn Monroe's Dress" and said her appearance had threatened to undermine her career. "People in the audience were looking at my exposed breasts and the shape of my body, and it didn't have nothing to do with the music... "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries
R.I.P. Abbey Lincoln (August 6, 1930 -- August 14, 2010). Expression, diction and projection in abundance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtU-lL02flg
