SUNDAY JAZZ.
ABBEY LINCOLN
Abbey Lincoln - Through the Years [2009] (3 x CDs)
Through the Years gathers Abbey Lincoln across decades without trying to flatten her into a single era or mood. Issued late in her career, it functions less as a retrospective statement and more as a patient walk through changing rooms, each one still occupied. The sequencing matters because it refuses to rush toward conclusions. Early selections carry the clarity and resolve of her initial recordings, where phrasing feels sculpted and intention sits close to the surface. Nothing is overstated, even when the material is direct.
As the set moves forward, time begins to register in the grain of her voice rather than in stylistic shifts. Lincoln’s later recordings do not chase reinvention. Instead, they allow space to widen around each line. Silence becomes an active element, pauses feel chosen rather than incidental. The compilation is careful in how it places these moments, letting earlier brightness make the later restraint feel earned. What emerges is not contrast for its own sake but continuity shaped by experience.
The middle stretch is especially telling. Here, Lincoln’s interpretive instincts take precedence over arrangement or tempo. Lyrics land with a conversational weight, as if the songs are being revisited rather than performed. This is where the set quietly asserts its purpose. It is not charting influence or legacy. It is showing how an artist carries material forward, how familiarity deepens rather than dulls expression.
By the time the later tracks arrive, the voice feels unguarded and exact. There is no sense of summation, no closing argument. The compilation ends without ceremony, which suits it. Through the Years does not frame Abbey Lincoln as a figure to be looked back on. It places recordings side by side and lets the listener notice what has changed, what has stayed intact, and how time itself becomes part of the sound. (B)
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Track lists
CD1
01 Abbey Lincoln - This Can't Be Love 2:25
02 Abbey Lincoln - Don't Explain 6:42
03 Abbey Lincoln - I Must Have That Man 3:57
04 Abbey Lincoln - Little Niles 5:06
05 Abbey Lincoln - Let Up 5:30
06 Abbey Lincoln - Come Sunday 5:13
07 Abbey Lincoln - Triptych Prayer Protest Peace 8:09
08 Abbey Lincoln - Left Alone 6:48
09 Abbey Lincoln - Lonesome Lover 7:04
10 Abbey Lincoln - Africa 7:10
11 Abbey Lincoln - Throw it Away 6:36
12 Abbey Lincoln - The Maestro 4:40
13 Abbey Lincoln - The River 4:58
CD2
01 Abbey Lincoln - The World is Falling Down 6:22
02 Abbey Lincoln - You Must Believe in Spring and Love 6:01
03 Abbey Lincoln - First Song 6:30
04 Abbey Lincoln - Bird Alone 8:32
05 Abbey Lincoln - I'm in Love 6:10
06 Abbey Lincoln - A Time for Love 8:40
07 Abbey Lincoln - Jungle Queen 6:11
08 Abbey Lincoln - A Child is Born 6:22
09 Abbey Lincoln - You Came A Long Way From St. Louis 3:55
10 Abbey Lincoln - I Should Care 5:44
11 Abbey Lincoln - Through The Years 5:15
12 Abbey Lincoln - When I'm Called Home 5:25
CD3
01 Abbey Lincoln - Avec Le Temps 5:39
02 Abbey Lincoln - Mr Tambourine Man 6:52
03 Abbey Lincoln - Love Has Gone Away 7:36
04 Abbey Lincoln - And It's Supposed to Be Love 5:11
05 Abbey Lincoln - Should've Been 7:56
06 Abbey Lincoln - Nature Boy 5:05
07 Abbey Lincoln - The Windmills of Your Mind 5:55
08 Abbey Lincoln - Skylark 5:25
09 Abbey Lincoln - It's Me, O' Lord 3:40
10 Abbey Lincoln - Blue Monk 5:13
11 Abbey Lincoln - The Music is The Magic 3:54
12 Abbey Lincoln - Down Here Below 8:48
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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
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