At 70, Abbey Lincoln’s in a Mood to Look Back

The number 70 can have a daunting effect on most people, especially when it is attached to a birthday that generally serves as a passage into serious senior citizenship. But not for Abbey Lincoln, who has been celebrating the arrival of her eighth decade Aug. 6 with a new album and a series of live performances with her trio.

On Wednesday, she was the opening-act headliner for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Tonight, she kicks off a rare (and too-brief) weekend run at the Jazz Bakery.

Her life, thus far, has been, Lincoln is quick to admit, a long and interesting trip.

“I started out being a sexy young girl in a Marilyn Monroe dress,” says Lincoln, “and Max Roach freed me from that. But then I became what people called a rabble-rouser when Max had me screaming on ‘Freedom Now.’ When I got free of that, I found myself in the ‘70s and started writing my own songs.”

The seven-part “We Insist: Freedom Now Suite,” a powerful, expressive view of African American history, was a landmark recording when it was released in 1960. But Lincoln (whose birth name is Anna Marie Woolridge) says she had to be persuaded to participate.

“I’m glad I had a chance to do it,” she adds, “but it really wasn’t my music, it was Max Roach and Oscar Brown Jr.’s music. At first I refused to do it because I said that all the screaming they wanted me to do wasn’t a part of music.

“I changed my mind about that,” she adds with a laugh, “after I heard Leontyne Price doing a really controlled scream.”

As it turned out, both the recording and the political climate of the ‘60s didn’t exactly enhance Lincoln’s employment opportunities, and she did not record for most of the decade. It wasn’t until she wrote her first original song that she found a tool with which to explore and express her inner voices. It was triggered by a trip to Africa in which she experienced a personal epiphany.

“I was in Africa because Miriam Makeba had arranged for me to go there,” she recalls. “And what I discovered in Africa was that I hadn’t been bastardized and ruined. Everybody knew I was an African woman; they just didn’t know where to put me. And that’s when I wrote ‘People in Me.’ It really relieved me of whatever anxieties I had been carrying around, and it helped me to make peace with myself.”

It was also the beginning of what has become a fairly extensive catalog of original songs totaling, according to Lincoln, nearly 80 recorded numbers. Her new album, “Over the Years” (Verve), includes five of her songs, as well as such unexpected items as the World War II number “When the Lights Go on Again,” the Mexican ballad “Somos Novios” (“It’s Impossible” in the English version, although Lincoln sings it in Spanish) and the traditional bluegrass tune (with Lincoln lyrics) “Blackberry Blossoms.” Many will undoubtedly turn up on her program at the Jazz Bakery tonight.

Interestingly, it was Thelonious Monk who encouraged Lincoln to try her hand at writing both words and music.

“It was on the liner notes for a release of ‘Straight Ahead’ [a Candid album on which Lincoln had written some lyrics for Monk’s ‘Blue Monk’]. And Monk is quoted as saying, ‘Abbey Lincoln is not only a great singer and a great actress, she’s a great composer.’ I had never written a complete song in my life, but I believed him. He told me, ‘You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to put lyrics to other people’s songs. You can hear a melody.’ And you know, he was right.”

Lincoln is moving past her 70th milestone with pride in what she has done and optimism about the future.

“I don’t sound the way I did when I was younger,” she says. “My voice is deeper and wider since I’ve matured. And more and more I sound like my mother. But she had a strong sound, and I like that. They didn’t let her sing with the choir in church because they said she didn’t have a beautiful sound, but, you know, you could always hear her singing in the congregation, and there’s something to be said for that.”

Lincoln adds another thought about her mother, one that reveals how far she has come over the past decades.

“She raised me to believe in the human spirit,” Lincoln says. “She didn’t tell me anybody’s name was God. So I’m an optimist. I don’t live in a dark place, and I don’t think there’s anything to scream about anymore. We’re all one people here. Everybody likes the same things, in our own way we worship the same God, and we’re all in this together.”

* Abbey Lincoln at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Tonight and Sunday at 8 and 9:30 p.m., $30. Saturday at 8 and 9:30 p.m., $35. Info: (310) 271-9039.

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Listening Post: A trained Indian classical tabla player, Trilok Gurtu has been in the forefront of the crossover between jazz and world music since the ‘70s. Best known as the late Collin Walcott’s replacement with the group Oregon, he also has performed with everyone from Don Cherry and Lee Konitz to Jan Garbarek and John McLaughlin. More recently, he has been leading his own highly eclectic groups, which showcase him behind a global cornucopia of instruments, generating jazz, funk, Latin and Indian rhythms, occasionally scatting via the syllables of Indian percussion, sometimes tossing in his idiosyncratic version of rap. Gurtu, who performs with his group on Tuesday at the Conga Room, has a similarly broad taste in music. Here’s what he has to say about what he’s been listening to lately.

* “Bach and Mozart are constantly on my turntable. This was the pop music of their day and what a great way to make music accessible to large audiences.”

* Carlos Santana. “Supernatural” (Arista). “Carlos has been a favorite spin of mine for many, many years. It’s so good to know that he still reaches out and touches the lives of so many people. He is a spiritual person, and that is so much needed in the West today; the rat race has become so exhausting. Perhaps this recent success will enable his newer and younger fans to explore those classic Santana recordings like ‘Abraxas’ and ‘Caravanserai’--truly mind-blowing recordings that will live on.”

* Bill Laswell. “Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974” (Columbia/Sony). “Bill is a phenomenon, isn’t he? How does he do it? Who else could remix Miles Davis and make such a tremendous job of it? The original ‘On the Corner’ was such a turning point for Miles and now Bill has taken it in another direction. Bravo, Bill.”

* Wasis Diop. “Toxu” and “No Sant” (Triloka). “Have you heard this guy sing? He is stunning and so unusual for an African. He has me so impressed; I am hoping he will sing for my next record. You may have to hunt around to find his records but it’s really worth it. Discovering him is like discovering Oumou Sangare or Angelique Kidjo.”

* Roop Kuma. “When I was home a few weeks ago in Bombay, I heard this singer and tabla player, and I had to get him on tape. Sadly for us in the West, there are many great musicians in India who play and sing from their souls rather than their pocketbooks. They never leave India and don’t make records that are released outside. So you have to go to India to hear someone like Roop, or maybe find an Indian record shop that can get his work from India.”

* Trilok Gurtu and his ensemble perform at the Conga Room, 5364 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Tuesday. Info: (323) 938-1696 or on the Web at https://www.congaroom.com.

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Don Heckman is The Times’ jazz writer. He can be reached by e-mail at djh@earthlink.net.