Biography
Trombonist Abe Lincoln belonged to a small circle of jazz players whose names matched those of American presidents. The remaining pair in this informal presidential lineup consisted of New Orleans trumpeter Thomas Jefferson and Georgia-born swing/R&B trombonist George Washington. During the 1920s Abe Lincoln worked vigorously as a hot jazz performer throughout New York City, later served for years as an uncredited studio musician in Hollywood, and experienced a lively return to prominence on the West Coast amid the Dixieland revival of the 1950s. Abram Lincoln entered the world on March 29, 1907, in Lancaster, PA, a short distance from the Dorsey Brothers’ hometown of Shenandoah. His father, John Lincoln, who played cornet in the Iroquois and Lancaster City brass bands, introduced Abe to the instrument when the child was only five. Enduring unusually rigorous musical instruction, young Abe soon began embellishing the melodies of polkas and marches with such ingenuity that his talent as a natural improviser became evident. He received his first payment for delivering a public solo on a peck horn and adopted the slip horn not long afterward.
In 1921 the fourteen-year-old Abe appeared before audiences across southern Pennsylvania in a newly assembled six-piece jazz ensemble directed by his older brother Bud Lincoln. Abe never advanced beyond grade school; at sixteen, with his father’s consent, he joined bandleader Ace Brigode and soon found work in New York City, where he cultivated a personal style shaped by the towering influence of early jazz trombone master Miff Mole. On occasion Abe would cover the bell of his horn with a sheet of hotel stationery and produce solos resembling the sound of an enormous kazoo. His earliest released recordings were made in October 1924 alongside Ace Brigode & His Fourteen Virginians. In February 1925 he entered James B. Dimick’s Million Dollar Sunny Brook Orchestra and performed with the group in Detroit at the Hollywood Theatre and the Arcadia Dance Hall. That October Abe recorded with the Bud Lincoln Jazz Band; Bud proved a skilled trumpeter on the order of Phil Napoleon, yet his path ended abruptly through a fatal accident.
Abe’s subsequent major step involved taking Tommy Dorsey’s place as trombonist in New York’s most frequently recorded white hot jazz outfit, the California Ramblers—an ironic designation, given that the ensemble never appeared on the West Coast and that most founding members hailed from Ohio. Lincoln’s endurance and nuanced phrasing suited the band’s approach and demanding schedule of weekly recording dates, whose releases appeared on numerous labels under a bewildering assortment of pseudonyms. From 1925 to 1927 he contributed to countless sessions with the group while also joining forces with ensembles such as Adrian Rollini & the Golden Gate Orchestra, the Five Birmingham Babies, the Goofus Five, the University Six, the Varsity Eight, the Little Ramblers, and Ted Wallace & His Orchestra, a thinly disguised California Ramblers fronted by Ed Kirkeby.
In 1930 Abe returned to Detroit and joined the Michigan Theater Orchestra, participating in a recording of Gioacchino Rossini’s William Tell Overture that aired on the original radio series The Lone Ranger. Forming and directing his own group in 1933, he toured Pennsylvania, where the Abe Lincoln Orchestra met with strong approval. Upon resuming activity in New York, Lincoln performed with bands led by Arthur Lange, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and Paul Whiteman. He entered Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra in 1934 and accompanied the unit to Los Angeles, where he remained for many years in Hollywood studio groups supporting performers including Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Hoagy Carmichael, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Johnny Mercer, Frankie Laine, Jo Stafford, and Ella Mae Morse. His trombone also featured in multiple Woody Woodpecker cartoon soundtracks.
Throughout the 1940s Abe Lincoln continued to play genuine jazz on occasion, sitting in with trumpeter Wingy Manone and saxophonist Eddie Miller. In October 1953 he boarded the Dixieland revival, first with the Rampart Street Paraders, then with Bing Crosby and Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band and Ray Anthony’s “Big Band Dixieland.” As a participant in Bobby Hackett’s Jazz Band, Lincoln traded phrases with Jack Teagarden; while recording with Red Nichols, Abe collaborated with trombonists Moe Schneider and King Jackson. In 1956 he helped deliver some of the most faithful Dixieland sides ever issued under Pete Fountain’s name. The next year Abe drew notice as a member of Pete Kelly’s Big Seven, frequently accompanying Jack Webb’s gritty narration, and enlisted with Matty Matlock & the Paducah Patrol. Lincoln’s extended later years included a guest spot with the Village Stompers, joint appearances with cornetist Wild Bill Davison in 1967 and 1975, a live recording date at the Blue Angel Jazz Club in Pasadena, and a multi-trombone gathering at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee in 1976. Widely admired and genuinely liked, Abe Lincoln enjoyed a long, tranquil retirement and died on June 8, 2000, in Van Nuys, CA, at the age of 93.
In 1921 the fourteen-year-old Abe appeared before audiences across southern Pennsylvania in a newly assembled six-piece jazz ensemble directed by his older brother Bud Lincoln. Abe never advanced beyond grade school; at sixteen, with his father’s consent, he joined bandleader Ace Brigode and soon found work in New York City, where he cultivated a personal style shaped by the towering influence of early jazz trombone master Miff Mole. On occasion Abe would cover the bell of his horn with a sheet of hotel stationery and produce solos resembling the sound of an enormous kazoo. His earliest released recordings were made in October 1924 alongside Ace Brigode & His Fourteen Virginians. In February 1925 he entered James B. Dimick’s Million Dollar Sunny Brook Orchestra and performed with the group in Detroit at the Hollywood Theatre and the Arcadia Dance Hall. That October Abe recorded with the Bud Lincoln Jazz Band; Bud proved a skilled trumpeter on the order of Phil Napoleon, yet his path ended abruptly through a fatal accident.
Abe’s subsequent major step involved taking Tommy Dorsey’s place as trombonist in New York’s most frequently recorded white hot jazz outfit, the California Ramblers—an ironic designation, given that the ensemble never appeared on the West Coast and that most founding members hailed from Ohio. Lincoln’s endurance and nuanced phrasing suited the band’s approach and demanding schedule of weekly recording dates, whose releases appeared on numerous labels under a bewildering assortment of pseudonyms. From 1925 to 1927 he contributed to countless sessions with the group while also joining forces with ensembles such as Adrian Rollini & the Golden Gate Orchestra, the Five Birmingham Babies, the Goofus Five, the University Six, the Varsity Eight, the Little Ramblers, and Ted Wallace & His Orchestra, a thinly disguised California Ramblers fronted by Ed Kirkeby.
In 1930 Abe returned to Detroit and joined the Michigan Theater Orchestra, participating in a recording of Gioacchino Rossini’s William Tell Overture that aired on the original radio series The Lone Ranger. Forming and directing his own group in 1933, he toured Pennsylvania, where the Abe Lincoln Orchestra met with strong approval. Upon resuming activity in New York, Lincoln performed with bands led by Arthur Lange, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and Paul Whiteman. He entered Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra in 1934 and accompanied the unit to Los Angeles, where he remained for many years in Hollywood studio groups supporting performers including Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Hoagy Carmichael, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Johnny Mercer, Frankie Laine, Jo Stafford, and Ella Mae Morse. His trombone also featured in multiple Woody Woodpecker cartoon soundtracks.
Throughout the 1940s Abe Lincoln continued to play genuine jazz on occasion, sitting in with trumpeter Wingy Manone and saxophonist Eddie Miller. In October 1953 he boarded the Dixieland revival, first with the Rampart Street Paraders, then with Bing Crosby and Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band and Ray Anthony’s “Big Band Dixieland.” As a participant in Bobby Hackett’s Jazz Band, Lincoln traded phrases with Jack Teagarden; while recording with Red Nichols, Abe collaborated with trombonists Moe Schneider and King Jackson. In 1956 he helped deliver some of the most faithful Dixieland sides ever issued under Pete Fountain’s name. The next year Abe drew notice as a member of Pete Kelly’s Big Seven, frequently accompanying Jack Webb’s gritty narration, and enlisted with Matty Matlock & the Paducah Patrol. Lincoln’s extended later years included a guest spot with the Village Stompers, joint appearances with cornetist Wild Bill Davison in 1967 and 1975, a live recording date at the Blue Angel Jazz Club in Pasadena, and a multi-trombone gathering at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee in 1976. Widely admired and genuinely liked, Abe Lincoln enjoyed a long, tranquil retirement and died on June 8, 2000, in Van Nuys, CA, at the age of 93.