Straight Ahead

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The complete original Abbey Lincoln album Straight Ahead (Candid CJM8015), on which she shares the bill with such stars as Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, Booker Little, Mal Waldron, and Max Roach. An important musical work as well as an eloquent political statement, this now classic album didnít receive unanimous approval in its day, as Ira Gitler made clear in his Down Beat review (included in its entirety in our booklet), where he accused the singer of being a professional Negro . The only known alternate take from the session, as well as all existing tunes featuring Lincoln from two other dates from the same period have been added here as a bonus. Straight Ahead was Abbey Lincoln's fifth LP as a leader, following Abbey Lincoln's Affair, A Story of a Girl in Love (1956), That's Him! (1957), It's Magic (1958), and Abbey's Blue (1959). However, in many ways, Straight Ahead was her first album, as it was the first LP under her own name on which she allowed herself to feel free from all estrictions with regard to style and content. As a result, she produced an album that was not only musically important, but also poetically and politically noteworthy. Her first politically charged recordings came along with Roach slightly before the making of Straight Ahead: she sang on Roachís landmark 1960s jazz civil rights recording, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (1960). After this album, Abbey Lincoln became even more deeply connected to the political fight against racism in the United States.