TV REVIEWS : Abbey Lincoln’s Missing Decades

Abbey Lincoln is an enigma. Critically acclaimed as a singer and actress, she has never received broad-based public acceptance.

“Abbey Lincoln: You Gotta Pay the Band” (at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28, and Friday at 8 p.m. on KVCR-TV Channel 24) is an hourlong documentary by producer-director Gene A. Davis and writer Ifa Bayeza that tries to explain Lincoln’s life of artistic ups and downs, but leaves viewers with unanswered questions.

The most puzzling query is, what happened to Lincoln between the years of 1970 and 1990?

Lincoln first achieved notoriety in 1956 when she sang in “The Girl Can’t Help It.” Then after establishing herself as a jazz singer, she starred with Ivan Dixon in 1965’s “Nothing But a Man” and 1968’s “For Love of Ivy.”

But she didn’t make another film until 1990, when she had a small role in Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues.” What happened in the intervening time? Did she not like acting? Was she shunned by Hollywood? Viewers are left in the dark.

Questions concerning Lincoln’s singing career also abound. In the ‘60s, she was married to drummer Max Roach, appeared on several of his albums and was blossoming. But by the early ‘70s, she had all but disappeared from jazz circles, making a handful of records on independent labels before signing with Verve, her first major label affiliation, in 1990.

“You Gotta Pay the Band” is built around interviews with Lincoln--who was born Anna Marie Woolridge and has worked under various stage names--and Roach, Tony Bennett, Hank Jones, Bridges, Charlie Haden, Stan Getz and others.