Lincoln, Abbey (1930– )

US jazz singer, composer, arranger, and film actor. In the early 1960s she began to work with drummer Max Roach and his band – she and Roach were briefly married (1962–70) – and she not only turned to jazz singing but also became more involved in African-Americans' struggle for civil rights. She recorded Roach's ‘Insist! Freedom Now Suit’ (1960). As her career took off, she toured worldwide as a soloist and appeared on radio, television, and films.

Lincoln was born in Chicago, Illinois. While a teenager she sang at school and church functions and then toured locally with a dance band. At the age of 19 she won an amateur singing contest in Michigan and went to California where she sang in nightclubs, using the name Anna Marie. She went to Hawaii as a resident club singer, but in 1954 returned to sing in clubs around Hollywood, now using the name Gaby Lee. In 1956 she changed her name to Abbey Lincoln and recorded her first album under that name. She featured in the films Nothing But a Man (1963) and For Love of Ivy (1968). Travelling and performing in Africa in the early 1970s, she decided to adopt a new name, Aminata Moseka, in tribute to her African roots, but then she seemed to drop out of sight professionally. In the early 1990s, however, once again as Abbey Lincoln, she revived her career, with both recordings and live performances. She was the subject of a Public Broadcasting System documentary, You Gotta Pay the Band (1992), and she came to be recognized as one of the great jazz singers of her generation.