Cleo Laine

Cleo Laine
Background information
Birth name	Clementina Dinah Campbell
Born	28 October 1927 (1927-10-28) (age 82) Southall, Middlesex, England
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Singer

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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 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."

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 - Collette (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

Awards and recognition

• Honorary doctorates:
  • Berklee College of Music, Boston
  • University of Cambridge
  • University of York
  • Open University
  • University of Luton
• Made Honorary Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge
• The Worshipful Company of Musicians awarded her their Silver Medal for a Lifetime Contribution to British Jazz (1998)
• Lifetime Achievement Award to Laine by the US recording industry (1991)
• Worshipful Company of Musicians awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
• Made an ambassador for SOS Children's Villages UK in recognition of her support for the Cambridge based charity.
• 2008 BBC Jazz Awards - Gold Award.

References

External links

• Official site
• Cleo Laine at the Internet Movie Database
• Cleo Laine at the Internet Broadway Database
• Cleo Laine at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Record label
• Clip of TV performance
• Daily Telegraph profile, 2 August 2007
• John Fordham, Beethoven with a Bass Guitar? Fine! (interview with Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth), The Guardian, 15 November 2007