1958 · Album
Music is the Magic
Recorded 1958 · Riverside · Produced by Orrin Keepnews
Abbey Lincoln Finding Her Voice Early
Lincoln sounds like someone figuring out exactly who she is, and that tension makes it worth hearing.
By 1958, Abbey Lincoln was still being marketed partly on her looks — she'd done some film work and early publicity leaned into her image in ways that had little to do with singing. It's Magic, recorded for Riverside, is interesting precisely because you can hear her pushing back against that, even if the album doesn't fully resolve the tension. She's working with strong material here, a mix of standards and popular songs, and she handles them with a directness that feels more like a real person singing than a performer hitting marks. This isn't Lincoln at her most politically charged — that comes later — but there's a seriousness starting to come through.
The rhythm section and horn arrangements give the record a warm, unhurried feel that suits her voice well. Lincoln wasn't a technically flashy singer — she worked through a song by finding its emotional center and staying there. On slower numbers she's convincing, letting phrases breathe rather than cluttering them with runs or tricks. The title track is a good example of her approach: she treats the lyric straight, no winking at the audience, and it lands cleanly because of that. Produced by Orrin Keepnews, the record has the clean, unfussy sound Riverside was known for in this period.
If you're coming to Lincoln for the first time, this probably isn't where you start — Straight Ahead (1961) is the sharper, more fully realized record. But It's Magic has its own appeal for people already interested in her development. You can hear the seeds of what she becomes. It's a good album made by someone who was about to make great ones, and that's worth something.
