A Turtle’s Dream

Since her 1960 recording for Candid, Abbey Lincoln has brought an unequaled passion to the jazz vocal art, an ability to invest words with special shades of meaning that recalls the spirit of Billie Holiday. Her talent has long been appreciated more by musicians than by a large general audience (perhaps because her work is so focused on maximizing the emotional potential of a lyric rather than on treating the voice as an instrument, as many jazz singers do). That respect is reciprocal: her work has always featured the finest musicians, from Eric Dolphy to Stan Getz. Lincoln composed most of the music and lyrics on this 1994 set, and each song is a journey into the self, into the wellsprings of life, from loss to joy. Her accompanists rise to the emotional occasion: fine moments are contributed by Kenny Barron, Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Roy Hargrove, saxophonist Julien Lourau, and Lincoln’s frequent accompanist, pianist Rodney Kendrick. –Stuart Broomer