Who was Abbey Lincoln? The simplest answer could be: a jazz singer with multiple artistic expressions. Or an artist who, from the 1950s to the early 21st century, changed life and name several times, from Anna Marie Wooldridge to Aminata Moseka, passing through Abbey Lincoln.
All correct answers. Abbey Lincoln was this and much more: a seductive club singer, then avant-garde jazz voice and, alongside drummer Max Roach, at the forefront of the African Americans' fight against segregation and for the recognition of civil rights. Abbey Lincoln has manifested her creative personality through composition and writing which have become for her instruments of cultural resistance, capable of fostering social change. Since the seventies of the twentieth century he has built his personal repertoire by overcoming the limits of traditional standards to express his thoughts on the complexity of life in original forms.
Afro-American, brilliant, unconventional, close in a very personal way to the struggle for women's liberation, Abbey Lincoln is told by Luigi Onori, music critic and jazz historian in the volume "Abbey Lincoln. A rebel voice between jazz and political struggle” (L'Asino d'oro editions, Euro 15, pp. 264. Also Ebook) through a portrait that is biographical, musical, poetic, anthropological and philosophical at the same time. We asked Luigi Onori how he met Abbey Lincoln: «I listened to Abbey's voice, and loved it, especially in We Insist! Freedom Now Suite by Max Roach as in Percussion Bitter Sweet, records that in the early 60s (which I listened to in the late 70s) combined an advanced - and inspired - jazz language with the political struggle for African American civil rights. I sure heard his album Straight Ahead. Then a long silence until one of his Roman recitals in 1984 where I was fascinated by the way he sang and presented himself. His collaboration with Bheki Mseleku, a prominent South African musician, and the 1997 album Who Used to Dance, featuring an original version of Mr. Tambourine Man, date back to the 1990s. Recently, it was the author and jazz singer Ada Montellanico, with her 2017 tribute album Abbey's Road, who reignited interest in Lincoln. In practice, I owe Montellanico the opportunity for the book on the African-American singer and the contact with the publishing house L'Asino d'oro".
Why the choice to dedicate a book to her?
«I've always loved the 'gray areas', the unconventional characters that need to be investigated, the territories in which one has to search, dig: from South African to Soviet jazz, from Bruno Tommaso to Randy Weston. Much of its recent history of Abbey Lincoln escaped me; moreover, I was fascinated by her transformation, underlined by the changed names: Anna Marie Wooldridge, Abbey Lincoln, Aminata Moseka…».
What did Abbey Lincoln represent for jazz?
«He embodied and updated the figure and the 'social song' of Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith. In addition, as an original interpreter, he has gradually rejected the 'dictatorship' of standards to create his own songbook of over 80 songs, with original lyrics and music. She was an actress, intellectual, painter, poet… Her complex figure, her temporary disappearance, her splendid maturity make her an 'ethical' and 'political' singer, far from stereotypes and intrinsically libertarian. A singing model that is alternative and that is often misunderstood even if DD Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson are, each in its own way, disciples».
What did your commitment to African-American rights mean to Abbey?
“Her personal liberation coincided with the development of an awareness as an African-American woman and as an artist whose action stood alongside the struggle of her own people. Thus Abbey marched and sang with and for the others. After the high season of conflict, he never gave up on an anti-racist and egalitarian vision of society".
Which interpretation of Abbey are you particularly attached to?
«I listened to and thoroughly studied his entire repertoire, from 1956 to 2007, until I absorbed it. I know him rationally and I love him emotionally. Having to choose, Learning How to Listen strikes me a lot: in it – Abbey is 68 years old, we are in 1998, the album is Wholly Earth – she reflects on being a singer, on the blues, on interpreting and expressing herself, on making music and on how much she is still learning. 'I'm learning to listen / because the song was given to me. / I'm learning to listen and to be free'. How much wisdom, humility, humanity, hope in these verses and how much love for a salvific, relational, collective music».
