Actress/singer Abbey Lincoln and musician Max Roach attend the premiere of ‘For Love Of Ivy’ on July 16, 1968 at Loew’s Tower East Theater in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
1956, and Abbey Lincoln stood poised to become jazz music’s next glamour star. She had just appeared in the film, The Girl Can’t Help It, wearing Marilyn Monroe’s flaming red dress from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her stage presence was honed to accentuate her looks and figure, rather than her voice. None of this sat well with Lincoln, who remembered her life growing up in poverty. She fired her manager and moved to New York, and from then on immersed herself in the growing Civil Rights Movement.
She met future husband, drummer Max Roach, while singing at the Village Vanguard. He introduced Lincoln to the jazz elite, and mentored her development as an activist and socio-political artist. She, Roach, Oscar Brown, Jr., and others began performing at rallies and fundraisers for the NAACP, CORE, and other Civil Rights organizations. In 1960, she collaborated on Roach’s masterpiece to the Struggle, “We Insist! Freedom Suite.”
Lincoln believed that her art and her activism were one and the same. “When everything is finished in a world,” she said, “the people look for what artists leave. It’s the only thing that we really have in this world – an ability to express ourselves and say, ‘I was here.’” Her lyrics, though charged with her social conscious, were steeped in sweet poetry. Next generation singers like Cassandra Wilson and Kendra Shank are adding the Lincoln catalogue to their repertoire, solidifying Abbey’s indelible mark on her world, and continuing her impact on the ongoing Struggle.
“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.
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