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Cleo Laine

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Cleo Laine

Dame Cleo Laine, DBE (born 28 October 1927) is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range.

She is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories.

Biography

Laine was born as Clementina Dinah Campbell in the London suburb of Southall to a black Jamaican father and English mother who sent her to singing and dancing lessons at an early age. She attended the Board School in Featherstone Road, until recently Featherstone primary School. She worked as an apprentice hairdresser, librarian and for a pawnbroker, got married and had a son, Stuart. [1] She did not take up singing seriously until her mid-twenties, however. She auditioned successfully for a band led by musician John Dankworth, with which she performed until 1958, when she and Dankworth married. They have two children together; Alec Dankworth and Jacqui Dankworth, both also musicians.

She then began her career as a singer and actress. She played the lead in a new play at London's Royal Court Theatre, home of the new wave of playwrights of the 1950s such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter. This led to other stage performances such as the musical Valmouth in 1959, the play A Time to Laugh (with Robert Morley and Ruth Gordon) in 1962, and eventually to her show-stopping Julie in the Wendy Toye production of Show Boat at the Adelphi Theatre in London in 1971.

During this period she had two major recording successes. You'll Answer to Me reached the British Top 10 while Laine was 'prima donna' in the 1961 Edinburgh Festival production of Kurt Weill's opera/ballet The Seven Deadly Sins. In 1964 her Shakespeare and All that Jazz album with Dankworth received widespread critical acclaim, and to this day remains an important milestone in her identification with the more unusual aspects of a singer's repertoire.

Laine's international activities began in 1972, with a successful first tour of Australia. Shortly afterwards, her career in the United States was launched with a concert at New York's Lincoln Center, followed in 1973 by the first of many Carnegie Hall appearances. Coast-to-coast tours of the U.S. and Canada soon followed, and with them a succession of record albums and television appearances, including The Muppet Show in 1977. This led, after several nominations, to her first Grammy award, in recognition of the live recording of her 1983 Carnegie concert.

She has collaborated with many well-known classical musicians including James Galway, Nigel Kennedy, Julian Lloyd Webber and John Williams.

Other important recordings during that time were duet albums with Ray Charles (Porgy and Bess) and Mel Tormé (see Nothing Without You), as well as Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire which won Laine a classical Grammy nomination.

Laine's relationship with the musical theatre, started in Britain, continued in the United States with starring performances in Sondheim's A Little Night Music and The Merry Widow (Michigan Opera). In 1980 Cleo Laine starred in Colette a new musical penned by John Dankworth. The show originally opened at The Stables Theatre, Wavendon in 1979 and transferred to the Comedy Theatre, London in September 1980. The cast album was released on CD for the first time in 2010 by Stage Door Records. In 1985 she originated the role of Princess Puffer in the Broadway hit musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for which she received a Tony nomination, and in 1989 she received the Los Angeles critics' acclaim for her portrayal of the Witch in Sondheim's Into the Woods.

In 1979 Laine was made an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire for services to music. In the 1997 New Year's Honours list, Laine's membership of the order was elevated to Dame Commander, and she was appointed Dame Cleo Laine DBE (the female equivalent of a knighthood).

In May 1992 Laine appeared with Frank Sinatra for a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London. She told a reporter in 2007: "I was very impressed with his singing, to me he sounded even better in those concerts than he did on the records. It was a real thrill to be part of his show."

In the 2006 New Years Honours list, her husband John Dankworth was made a knight bachelor, becoming Sir John Dankworth.

On October 28, 2007, Laine turned 80. She marked her birthday with a series of special concerts in the UK, including an appearance with the John Dankworth sextet at Birmingham Town Hall on December 18. She said of her milestone birthday: " I don't think about being 80. What would be the point? I'm limping a bit because they've given me a new knee, but that's about the only difference. I don't want to start thinking about what I should or shouldn't be doing at my age. It's not right."

In 2008 John Dankworth and Cleo Laine won the prestigious Gold Award at the BBC Jazz Awards. The couple got a standing ovation for the vivacity of their performance with Guy Barker's powerful specially-assembled big band at the finale of the award ceremony.

A New York critic wrote of Laine and Dankworth's September 2008 engagement at Blue Note: "Dankworth’s alto sax and clarinet sound as gossamer as ever, while Laine’s voice remains a wonder of agility and plummy richness. After 57 years of dual music-making (and 50 of marriage), the Dankworths can anticipate one another’s every move; they make a stage seem as comfortable as their living room."

On February 6th 2010, her husband Sir John Dankworth passed away aged 82.

Notable recordings

  • "Bidin' My Time" from the album "Spotlight On Cleo Laine". - 3:16
  • "If"
  • "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"

Discography

  1. 1950-52 - Get Happy ESQ317 Reissued in 1985-6 (3 tracks)
  2. 1955 - Cleo Sings British (10") - Esquire
  3. 1957 - Meet Cleo Laine Cleo Sings -
  4. 1957 - In Retrospect - MGM
  5. 1957 - She's the Tops - MGM 2354026
  6. 1959 - Valmouth (original cast) - Pye
  7. 1961 - Jazz Date (with Tubby Hayes) - Wing
  8. 1961 - Spotlight on Cleo -
  9. 1962 - All About Me - Fontana
  10. 196? - Cleo Laine Jazz Master Series - DRG Records MRS 502
  11. 1963 - Cindy-Ella (orig cast of 1962 Xmas production) - Decca
  12. 1963 - Beyond the Blues (American Negro Poetry) - Argo
  13. 1964 - Shakespeare and All that Jazz - Fontana
  14. 1964 - This is Cleo Laine - Shakespeare and All That Jazz - Philips
  15. 1966 - Woman Talk - Fontana
  16. 1967 - Facade (with Annie Ross) British reissue: Philips - Fontana
  17. 1968 - If We Lived on Top of a Mountain - Fontana
  18. 1968 - Soliloquy - Fontana
  19. 1969 - The Idol (Dankworth soundtrack w/ 2 Cleo vocals) - Fontana
  20. 1969 - The Unbelievable Miss Cleo Laine - Fontana
  21. 1971 - Portrait - Philips
  22. 1972 - An Evening with Cleo Laine and the John Dankworth Quartet - Philips, Sepia
  23. 1972 - Feel the Warm - Philips
  24. 1972 - Showboat (single LP) - EMI-Columbia
  25. 1972 - Showboat (double LP) - EMI/Stanyan
  26. 1972 - This is Cleo Laine - EMI
  27. 1973 - I Am A Song - RCA
  28. 1973 - Day by Day - Stanyan
  29. 1974 - Live at Carnegie Hall - RCA
  30. 1974 - Close-Up - RCA
  31. 1974 - Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg) Ives Songs - RCA
  32. 1974 - A Beautiful Thing (with James Galway) - RCA
  33. 1974 - Easy Living (anthology of Fontana tracks) - RCA
  34. 1974 - Spotlight on Cleo Laine (double LP) - Philips
  35. 1974 - Cleo's Choice - Pye
  36. 1975 - Cleo's Choice (abridged issue on Quintessence Jazz) - Quintessence
  37. 1975 - The Unbelievable Miss Cleo Laine - Contour 6870675
  38. 1975 - Born on a Friday - RCA
  39. 1976 - Close-Up (re-issue?) - Victor
  40. 1976 - Live at the Wavendon Festival - BBC (Black Lion)
  41. 1976 - Porgy & Bess (with Ray Charles) - London
  42. 1976 - Return to Carnegie - RCA
  43. 1976 - Best Friends (with John Williams) - RCA
  44. 1976 - Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz in the '70's - RCA
  45. 1977 - 20 Famous Show Hits - Arcade
  46. 1977 - The Sly Cormorant (read by Cleo and Brian Patten) - Argo (Decca)
  47. 19?? - Romantic Cleo - RCA 42750
  48. 1978 - Showbiz Personalities of 1977 - 9279304
  49. 1978 - The Early Years - Pye GH653
  50. 1978 - Gonna Get Through - RCA
  51. 1978 - A Lover & His Lass - Esquire Treasure
  52. 1978 - Wordsongs (double LP) - RCA
  53. 1979 - One More Day - DRG
  54. 1979 - The Cleo Laine Collection (double LP) - RCA
  55. 1980 - Cleo's Choice (re-issue?) - Pickwick
  56. 1980 - Colette (original cast) - Sepia
  57. 1980 -Sometimes When We Touch (with James Galway) - RCA
  58. 1980 - The Incomparable - Black Lion BLM51006
  59. 1981 - One More Day - Sepia
  60. 1982 - Smilin' Through (with Dudley Moore) - CBS
  61. 1983 - Platinum Collection (double LP) - Magenta
  62. 1983 - Off the Record - WEA Sierra GFE DD1003
  63. 1984 - Let the Music Take You (w/ John Williams) - CBS
  64. 1985 - Cleo at Carnegie - the 10th Anniversary Concert - RCA
  65. 1985 - That Old Feeling - CBS
  66. 1985 - "Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra,
  67. 1985 - The John Dankworth 7 - featuring Cleo Laine" - EMI
  68. 1986 - Wordsongs - Westminster
  69. 1986 - The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Philips
  70. 1986 - Unforgettable - 16 Golden Classics - Castle
  71. 1986 - Cleo Laine - The Essential Collection - Sierra
  72. 1987 - Unforgettable - PRT
  73. 1987 - Classic Gershwin (1 track on this CD—Embraceable You) - CBS
  74. 1988 - Cleo Laine Sings Sondheim - RCA
  75. 1988 - Showboat (re-issue of 1972 cast album) - EMI/Stanyan
  76. 1988 - Cleo Laine & John Dankworth - Shakespeare and All That Jazz - Affinity
  77. 1989 - Woman to Woman - RCA
  78. 1989 - Jazz - RCA
  79. 1989 - Portrait of a Song Stylist - Harmony
  80. 1991 - Young At Heart - Castle ATJCD 5959
  81. 1991 - Spotlight on Cleo Laine - Phonogram 848129.2
  82. 1991 - Pachebel's Greatest Hits (1 track) - RCA
  83. 1992 - Nothing Without You (with Mel Torme) - Concord
  84. 1993 - On the Town (1 track)
  85. 1994 - I Am a Song - RCA
  86. 1994 - Blue and Sentimental - RCA
  87. 1995 - Solitude - RCA
  88. 1997 - The Very Best of Cleo Laine - RCA
  89. 1997 - Mad About the Boy - Abracadabra
  90. 1998 - Ridin' High (Early Sessions) - Koch
  91. 1998 - Trav'lin' Light: The Johnny Mercer Songbook (1 track) - Verve
  92. 1998 - Let's Be Frank (1 track) - MCA
  93. 1998 - The Collection - Spectrum Music
  94. 1999 - Sondheim Tonight - Live From the Barbican (1 track) - Jay
  95. 1999 - The Best of Cleo Laine - Redial
  96. 1999 - The Silver Anniversary Concert (Carnegie Hall, Limited Edition) - Sepia
  97. 1999 - Christmas at the Stables
  98. 2001 - Quintessential Cleo - Gold Label
  99. 2001 - Live in Manhattan - Gold Label
  100. 2002 - Quality Time - Universal/Absolute
  101. 2003 - Loesser Genius - Qnote
  102. 2010 - Colette - Original 1980 London Cast (Reissue) - Stage Door

Awards and recognition

See Also

References

  1. ^ Sunday Independent, 20 July 2008
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