Abe Lincoln
b. Abraham Lincoln, 29 March 1907, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. Lincoln took up the trombone as a small child and by his late teens was proficient enough to follow Tommy Dorsey into the California Ramblers. He played in various other bands and in the '20s was with those led by Roger Wolfe Kahn and Paul Whiteman. During the late '30s he was with Ozzie Nelson's popular dance band. During the '40s he was active in film studio work but made occasional record dates with singers and a handful of jazz musicians. In the '50s he made rather more jazz dates, including sessions with the Rampart Street Paraders, Pete Fountain, Matty Matlock and Bob Scobey. In the '60s, he played club and festival dates with several bands including brief stints with Wild Bill Davison and Fountain. Although Lincoln was capable of playing in the legato style achieved by such notable contemporaries as Dorsey and Jack Teagarden, it is as a bristling dixieland player that he has made his greatest mark.