Fresh Air

Abbey Lincoln / Max Roach

09.03.2021 - By NPRPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

We're continuing our "Summer of Soul" series with archival interviews with singer Abbey Lincoln and drummer Max Roach. Both were featured in the Questlove documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Abbey Lincoln started out as a seductive nightclub singer in the 1950s, but after meeting Max Roach, she started performing in a style influenced by modern jazz and the civil rights movement. She evolved into an introspective singer who wrote achingly beautiful songs about love and life. Max Roach was one of the inventors of modern jazz drumming. He helped formulate the language of bebop. In the early 1960s, he recorded some of the first jazz music inspired by the Civil Rights Movement.

Also, John Powers reviews the PBS Masterpiece series 'Guilt.'

More episodes from Fresh Air