CD, стоящие на полке рядом : Jazz (Woman Voice)      

Abbey sings Billie Holliday - 'Live! At The U.J.C.'

Abbey Lincoln's idol has always been Billie Holiday. Although she has never really copied Lady Day and she has long had her own style and sound, the feeling and intensity that Lincoln gives the lyrics she interprets is reminiscent of late-period Holiday. A perfect person to pay tribute to Billie Holiday, Lincoln (on the first of two Enja CDs) is joined by the underrated tenor Harold Vick (who would pass away unexpectedly within a short time after this recording), pianist James Weidman, bassist Tarik Shaha and drummer Mark Johnson for fresh renditions of standards. Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes" is taken as an instrumental feature for Vick and other highlights include "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit," an emotional "I'll Be Seeing You" and a song perfectly suited for Abbey Lincoln's voice: "Crazy He Calls Me." One of the singer's best recordings of the 1980s and a fine complement to the equally rewarding Vol. 2.

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Abbey Lincoln is a dedicated and prolific performing artist renowned/or the originality and daring of her musical interpretations and compositions. She has many names and her legend has mystique. A woman of consciuosness and an actress of great depth, she reflects in the following interview with Adger Cowans on the experiences which have led her to do her newest recording.

ADGER COWANS: Why an album on Billie Holiday?

ABBEY LINCOLN: It wasn't my idea at first. Cheryl Bruce with the Studio Museum of Harlem asked my rep. Jimmy, if I would sing some Billie Holiday songs for the concert I had promised. T said, yes, and that she could call it, "Abbey Sings Billie." I'm glad she brought it to me. In a way, it was cathartic.

AC: What do you mean by "cathartic"?

AL: There are some songs I need to sing right now and some songs I used to sing that are part of this collection. Finally, I got a chance to pay homage to her and to call her name because I am definitely one of the inheritors of her rich legacy. Then I started remembering some things that became more significant to me than they used to be. When I was in Honolulu, when 1 was about 22-23, she came there to work. I was at the Trade Winds. She was working at the Brown Derby. I would do my show and then run over to see her show. She came to see me twice but she didn't say anything to me. She sat at the bar; she had a little Mexican Chihuahua. I bought two Chihuahuas after that. I gave one to my mother.

AC: She had a direct influence on you then?

AL: Yes, but before she came to Honolulu. I first heard her when I was 14 years old. We were in the country. We didn't have a radio; we had a victrola. My sister had been to Chicago to visit some of our relatives, so it was my oldest sister, Evelyn, who brought us the music. She listened to all the music.

AC: What was the name of the song?

AL: I don't remember the name of the song, but she also had a Coleman Hawkins record, Body & Soul. I had never heard body and soul put together like that 'cause the Church didn't talk about your body and spirit being together. I remember her sound, it made a great impression on me.

AC: What other singer before Billie Holiday made an impression on you?

AL: She was the first. That was the first of the records that we had in our house. You know my father built houses: the house that I was born in, the house in which I grew up. He had a beautiful voice. He might have been a singer but opted to take care of children, be a family man.

AC: He was a carpenter?

AL: Not by trade, but he did anything he had to do to see his family. He was resourceful. That was my first influence: my mother and father. They were practical artists and I didn't know anything about the arts in that way, it was just a way of life. Sometimes, I would go to the piano. With all those people in the house, there was always contention and I could get out of it. I could go to the piano. I had sacred ground there. Nobody would bother me. I went seriously to the piano. I was a baby, like 4-5 years, playing around on the piano, and fingering out melodies and they left me alone, they didn't bother me at the piano, so I found my space there. When I heard the sound of Billie's voice, Billie was unadorned as far as her talent was concerned, the sound of her voice.

She didn't try to sound good or anything; she didn't try to prove that she was a great singer. She never made one sound that was insincere, for effect. She sang songs about her life, the life of the people. She was my greatest influence. After I heard Billie, I came to the city.

When I was 14, I came to Kalamazoo. I guess I must have heard Billie a few months before we left the house in the country and went to Kalamazoo where we had radios and things, where I heard Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. My career really started in high school. It's the only reason I stayed in school. We had a program called Band Follies and a friend of mine, Barbara Atkinson, who still lives in Kalamazoo, got me started. I guess she could tell -1 mean, I was really restless. I was about 17 and I hated school. I loved school in the country because it was a good school, but when I got to Kalamazoo 1 was beginning to learn about racism, disrespect, ignorance, and I hated it. We were out-numbered: there were only about 17 black students. We were the kids that lived in a pocket at the bottom of the hill: we were the servants for those who lived on top of the hill. Anyway, I auditioned on Barbara's advice. She had heard me sing somehow. At the time, I had given up my music. I thought I had. We lost the piano, and we were in another place. I didn't miss the piano and I wasn't .thinking of myself as a performer yet. It was something I did to ease the pain of a world so full of hate.