Dame Cleo Laine (1927 - 2025)

Sad - but not unexpected - news that one of my all-time favourite singers just passed away at the grand old age of 97. I wrote about Cleo Laine here trough the years, since I listened her for decades and was admiring her voice forever. She will always be known as the British Queen of Jazz with fascinating and long career, mostly inseparable from her husband and musical partner John Dankworth with whom she criss-crossed continents, while experimenting with various music genres and selflessly encouraging potential musicians in the backyard of their countryside home - founded in 1970, what started as a free summer project it is called The Stables Theatre now (performers who played there include Dave Brubeck, Amy Winehouse, Nigel Kennedy and James Galway). Both Laine and her husband will be remembered for bringing Jazz to wider audiences and adding class to a genre that at the time was considered less respectable - even though they never strayed too far from Jazz, by working with wide net of musicians, they refused any pigeonholing and would enthusiastically embrace various music types (Dankworth in film music and classical, Laine in music theatre, pop, classical). Perhaps most significantly, they would set poetry in music (starting with 1950s they would set Shakespeare sonnets to Jazz and worked on this trough decades, resulting in three full albums in 1964, 1978 and 2005) and this surely speaks about their artistic merits.

Besides being totally in love with her voice and charisma (Laine was a very attractive lady with Caribbean father and British mother), I have always enjoyed the sheer wealth of her recorded music - trough the years it was always a pleasure to hear how skilfully she would approach anything from latest Carole King pop to Stephen Sondheim musicals, rowdy Bessie Smith blues to Porgy & Bess, from full-blown big orchestra to acoustic guitar or piano solo, she was always instantly recognisable and brilliant. With all these accolades, it is not surprising that her success in UK eventually opened doors to acceptance in US where she might have been the first Brit awarded with Grammy as Jazz singer of the year - her arrival cemented and immortalised as a guest in a hugely popular "The Muppet Show" that always hosted the biggest names. I watched this as a kid and I could watch it anytime again, its one of my favourite "Muppet Show"  moments. 

Interesting to note how UK media celebrates her, but avoids saying "the best British Jazz singer" - to avoid any possible arguments, they simply proclaim she was "the most successful British Jazz singer ever" which I guess can be no doubt. Her obituary in The Guardian is genuinely glowing and Brits are apparently really proud of her. Reading the obituaries and articles about Laine now, I was touched how many people remember the couple fondly - they were huge stars in their prime - this is perhaps the most important, this is what is left behind: not fame, not material success but to be remembered with affection for bringing beauty into lives of other people. I will love Cleo Laine forever. 

Documentary: "Enigma" by Zackary Drucker (2025)

Now this was something I watched with such a pleasure that I might even re-watch it again.

It is a story about two very famous transgender people who might have started together but drifted apart later in life, living completely different lives and following their own paths. It was directed by Zackary Drucker who is transgender herself and can be seen in the movie. 

The documentary contrasts lives of April Ashley and Amanda Lear and mainly uses archival interviews and excerpts from Ashley's own memoirs as a testament of how the life back in the 1950s and 1960s was: we are talking about the times when crossdressing was punished by law (but strangely enough, allowed as a part of the stage act) so small wonder many crossdressers gravitated towards famous and notorious Paris nightclub "Le Carrousel de Paris" where many of them found employment as a glamorous performers. The part of documentary that deals with "Le Carrousel" is genuinely the highlight of the movie and I would not be surprised if the club eventually get its own documentary because its really astonishing that in conservative post-WW2 Europe such a place existed, even if French love to think of themselves as free-spirited, but according to surviving performers, it was also a very, very buttoned-up place. Jet set would arrive to be entertained by sensationally attractive boys who posed as Hollywood glamour beauties: the illusion was cemented by actual surgeries some of them got in Morocco.

April Ashley died in 2021 so the movie uses her old interviews to confirm her perspective: he was a beautiful boy who did not fit in his Liverpool surroundings and was in fact, often beaten, harassed and bullied there. No wonder he fitted perfectly in "Le Carrousel" where everybody enjoyed the camaraderie, even though there was obvious competition and jealousy - they all shared backstage life and supported each other against the prejudicial outside world. Ashley was actually fairly successful until sex operation, when she decided to start a completely new life in UK as a photo model - quickly outed by salacious tabloids and destroyed in a court after a highly publicised divorce from a Baron Corbett (who claimed he was deliberately deceived). The scandal destroyed Ashley's professional and personal life and she had never recovered from it, though much later in life when social atmosphere changed, she eventually got some moral satisfaction from being recognised as transgender equality - but this was after decades of  criticism and media assaults. 

While Ashley and her contemporaries from "Le Carrousel" all claim that there was a young pretty boy (who also painted) working with them and who eventually also did sex operation - consequently starting a new life and rejecting old contacts - Amanda Lear absolutely refuses to admit anything about it and claims her own story. Now in her eighties, Lear is a true diva, living grand life and comes across as confident, entertaining, witty and totally in control of her life. Director Zackary Drucker tries all the tricks to corral her into admitting trans past but Lear is too clever to get caught - even when pictures of "Le Carrousel" are pushed in her face, Lear won't budge and to be honest, Drucker comes across as nuisance - simultaneously flattering Lear and claiming she was the biggest trans celebrity ever, the northern light, etc but watching like a hawk for any sign of capitulation. There is a fleeting moment when we see something going on inside Lear's mind - but more I think about it, more I am prone to understand it was probably sad realisation that after a lifetime of fencing off questions about her gender, she was fooled into expecting genuinely respectful interview which turned into just another same old scandal digging expose. 

At the end, it is a curious look at two lives that had completely different path. For all her late-life awards, Ashley is a tragic life because she was constantly haunted by tabloids. Lear used her notoriety to create intriguing stage image and became successful disco star with cult following across the world - journalists might have been annoying and repetitive but she knew how to deal with them. Director Zackary Drucker might say whatever she wants ("oh, I love Lear, she was always my idol") but the movie focuses heavily on unmasking Lear and eventually it became really distasteful - at this point, Lear is retired eighty year old who deserves to live her life as she pleases, there is absolutely no need to dig & unearth anything if she is happy to live whatever life she created for herself. She does not need to apologise or explain herself to anybody. 

Dog's Heaven

If you ever glanced at this blog, you might know that I have two aquariums - first it was just one, than I decided my fishes deserve much bigger space so I got them bigger tank and kept the smaller one for babies and Pleco (affectionately called Babalou) who is too territorial and needs his own kingdom. I live in a comfortable but relatively small apartment so there is not too much space and the conversations about the possibility of more animals (a cat? dog? parrot?) was usually left in the air because pets need attention and it would make life complicated during vacation (a friend visits twice per week to feed fishes and it worked just fine). And than, this Spring, my house turned into a dog's heaven.

First it was the couple next door who rescued a little black dog and she stayed in my place a few times - apparently she came from Bosnia, her name is Zoe and because of her traumatic past, she can't stand other dogs - small as she is, she really gets upset when other dogs come close to her humans (competition?) but is very, very affectionate towards people and loves to snuggle her nose under my armpit and sleep under my blanket. She is so adorable that I even considered adopting a dog of the similar size. 

Not long after that, a friend was going on vacation and asked for a favour to take care of his dog for a week - Yip was not a small puppy like Zoe, but a real, proper dog and it worked out just fine. He is adorable and very handsome boy, walking him was actually a pleasure - I always thought that I would dislike dog walks but in fact it gave me a certain serenity and I would even take him out after I returned from work, late at night, when the streets were quiet and empty. Sure, I had to let him sniff every corner and he would occasionally jump into water but it was all part of experience. I was constantly stopped on the street by people telling me how beautiful he was. Yip stayed with me on two occasions, both times for a week. 

Just when I packed Yip away (with a sigh of relief), I got a call from a old friend who discovered that he has a cancer and is going trough a chemotherapy. This makes it too difficult to take care of his beloved dog Balder who is a fully grown goldendoodle and I immediately agreed to take Balder in, as long as its needed. Now, Balder is really big boy but this is favour I cold not refuse. There was even option to put him into a dog's hotel for a time, but he would have to be sterilised for this and all of us thought this sounds too drastic, I was more than happy to help. Balder is (so far) the biggest of my dog guests but he turned out to be a gentle giant. He is 5 years old with a personality of the lovable puppy and its really impossible to ignore his playfulness, affectionate nature and sweetness. He likes nothing more than attention all the time and is following me everywhere with a ball in his mouth, asking to be played with. Yes he is pulling very strongly from time to time (when he sees other dogs or recognises the path) but listens very well and is such a joy in the house that I don't mind his size. 

"The Night She Disappeared" by Lisa Jewell (2021)

 

Honestly, this book just read itself, it was such a good, old-fashioned psychological thriller that I got completely lost in it and savoured every chapter with the greatest pleasure - even had to control myself not to peek at the end. Funny enough, I never encountered Lisa Jewell before and discovered her only because according to Goodreads it was one of the best thrillers of 2021 - I liked the title and decided to give it a chance. Perfect choice, kept me busy for a week and at the end I even dedicated Sunday afternoon just to finish it.

The story is about a young couple (a teenage mother Tallulah and her boyfriend Zach) who disappeared after a party in a grand house in the woods, called the Dark Place. Now its up to Tallulah's mother Kim to take care of their baby and to push forward with investigation, but neither police nor the owners of the Dark Place are very helpful. Apparently Tallulah was friend with the villa's owner daughter, charismatic Scarlett Jacques but all the traces disappear here as Scarlett and her snotty friends all claim they had no idea about the couple or what happened to them. Later, in 2018 perspective switches to detective writer Sophie Beck who arrives in town as a girlfriend of a local teacher and somehow gets swept into the story - she bonds with Kim, digs out the hidden engagement ring and thanks to her, police re-opens the case again. 

I am not completely sure is it because of Lisa Jewell or simply that it was the right book at the right time - it fitted me like a glove and I enjoyed it a lot, as its very possible that I just needed something like this to occupy me and transport me elsewhere. The reality and the news are so bad and alarming currently that I needed something for a pure escapism and this was perfect. It's not the best thriller ever but its very, very solid and I might even check out more of this author.

Exhibition: Josephine Baker - A Life of Resistance

 

Amsterdam's Verzetsmuseum (Resistance museum), dedicated to history of Amsterdam in WW2 has long been one of the most interesting museums around - in addition to its permanent exhibition, it also brings amazing temporary displays like currently the one about Josephine Baker. While its true that in public consciousness she is forever associated with her 1920s notoriety as the half naked black showgirl who danced in banana dress, her life story is much more than that and deserves proper, serious look and understanding of what it was like to be black entertainer in her time.

I was vaguely familiar with Baker's life story, since I have read her 1989 biography by Phyllis Rose ("Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time") but that was decades ago and at this point I remember only few general informations, namely that she was just another girl in black revues who discovered that audiences liked her clowning and used attention grabbing choreography to be noticed - its interesting that she never achieved success in her own homeland where competition was much stronger, but flourished in Europe where lack of black entertainers means that she was perceived as special. She was embraced in France and made France her homeland - so much that she even got involved in espionage in WW2, which gave her life a certain purpose and validation that would have never been possible back home. After the war there were international tours, tons of adopted children and basically basking in adulation & celebration until her death in early 1970s. That would be her life story in a nutshell, so I was familiar with this but wanted to see the exhibition anyway.

It was very interesting because I forgot a lot - chilling reminders of lynching in her birthplace St.Louis that young Baker must have witnessed. That was the reality of life when she was growing up. We are talking about mob burning the whole neighbourhoods and 100 people burned and clubbed to death. Than we have her first Broadway success that lead to engagements in Europe where she spread her wings and achieved notoriety as "banana girl" but even here there were problems - she was thrown out of Germany where both police and church were against her. Still, she persisted and became one of the biggest names of Showbiz on the continent between two wars, again I must note that her charisma and stagecraft overshadowed what was basically a fairly limited singing voice - as another US transplant in Europe, P. P. Arnold noted much later in her own autobiography, the fact that we did not have blacks in Europe (or the tradition of gospel singing) every black singer was immediately embraced as authentic and she mentioned that even singers who would be considered mediocre back home, flourished in Europe simply because there was no competition. I was never bowled over by Baker's recordings, to my ears she always sounded almost comical until much later when in 1950s her mature voice became actually genuinely interesting and sophisticated. 

Yes, there is a fair amount of space on the exhibition about her post WW2-attempts to establish herself again in US but that was simply not possible, because of the racism. She might have been a huge star and a phenomenon in Europe but 1950s US would treat her abominably, like all the other black entertainers. While some, like Louis Armstrong were willing to close their eyes and simply accept the reality, Baker was too much of a diva to accept this and because back in France she was treated with respect and dignity, she fought publicly with bigwigs in US, with results that she was basically blacklisted and never accepted there. Just in case if you wondered what exactly was her connection to Amsterdam, she was regularly bringing her adopted children here and even published a children's book here, in collaboration with Dutch illustrator. 

"Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop" by Bob Stanley (2022)

 

A rare and beautiful thing, this voluminous book was captivating from the first to the last page - even though I was busy with it for a month, not once I wanted to skip the page; it kept me engaged to the very end and than I went back once more to re-read about Jake Thackray. I have read in the past books focused on specific genres, however this is the very first time that I have encountered book that covers almost the whole century of recorded popular music - in all its disguises, be it vaudeville, blackface, blues, crooners, swing, rock, Broadway, you name it. It sounds very ambitious and it is - it is also brimming with interesting perception, conclusions, sardonic wit and opinions. "Let's Do It" works as a kind of prequel to author's "Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop" but while it starts with the very dawn of recorded popular music, it goes much further than the rise of rock - it covers popular music all the way to the early 1970s and explains what were the seismic changes at that point.

   

Stanley is not only a brilliant writer but also a musician - it is because he is musician, that he has this unique perspective of what is the heartbeat of popular music (as accepted by masses, as opposite to critically acclaimed but unloved cult names) and as a listener, he really unearths rare gems that only nerds like me appreciate: he claims that one of Streisand's best recordings was rare 1966 single "Our Corner of the Night"  which is totally fascinating as its anomaly from her better known work (and never released or either album or compilations). He is also very funny, as for example in this particular paragraph: "No singer was more indicative of America's new-found effervescence than the insatiable Sophie Tucker, who emerged in 1912, aged twenty-six, as ˜The Last of the Red Hot Mamas, though no one had previously been aware that red-hot mamas were endangered."

What struck me as the most interesting conclusion after reading such a massive survey of almost a century of popular music is how transitory everything is - recorded music is simply a recorded document of particular moment in time. And just like every moment, it has its value and than it goes away, mostly to be forgotten. No matter how big or popular certain songs or artists are in their time, eventually the new listeners will find new favourites and their own idols: a perfect example is Bing Crosby who was once a massive pop superstar and is almost completely forgotten now. Name every artist you find important and immortal - this book will show you that its all about perspective and as the time passes, new generations will not give a damn about your immortals. A case in point: musician and poet Rod McKuen : "He may be almost forgotten now, but until Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, McKuen’s album The Sea was the Warner Brothers group’s best-selling LP of all time. That catalogue included every album by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis on Reprise, not to mention those by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. McKuen was huge, and now his music is forgotten."  It seems to me this eventually happens to everybody, to metamorphose from current hit to oldies and than slowly to grandparents music. Re-evaluation and clever marketing (like in case of obscure blues artist Robert Johnson who became celebrated posthumously) might bring some names back into the spotlight, but generally speaking everybody has a moment in the sun and than it goes away, we are drops in the ocean, to be forgotten along with our pop stars. 

"The Greedy Queen: Eating with Victoria" by Annie Gray (2017)

 

I was familiar with Annie Gray thanks to her work with "English Heritage" youtube channel and her wonderful enthusiasm about historical cooking recipes, but I was not aware that she was also book author, until I stumbled upon Podcast "Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society" where one whole episode was all about this particular book - this was not possible to resist so here I am.

The book is great fun, as it follows various stages of Victoria's life trough the food that was prepared and served for her. It is full of wonderful details and you can tell that Gray gets giddy with excitement as she explains that even at that time it was not uncommon that guests would steal the plates and cutlery (from Buckingham Palace, imagine that!) as a souvenirs. Tons of behind-the-scene informations and thankfully, Gray decided not to bother with history - there are enough biographies about Queen Victoria - her focus is exclusively a insider look into Queen's household, chefs, staff, cooking recipes, etc. Somewhere halfway trough, I suddenly got exhausted from all this cornucopia of research, but it says more about my lack of attention than about brilliant work of Annie Gray. 

"Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth" by Avi Loeb (2021)

 

Just in case if it was not clear already, I have a passion and curiosity about extraterrestrial life - basically my youtube history show totally random selection of videos about UFO, Tina Turner and historical cooking recipes. And if I am chilling after midnight on youtube, you can bet it will be one of these subjects. During one of such evenings, I have seen (and heard) Harvard professor Avi Loeb who struck me as an interesting man and his book stayed somewhere in the corner of my mind until eventually I decided to dive into it completely. 

As expected, the book "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth" was absolutely up my alley and I enjoyed it very much - Loeb is an intelligent, humble man who is still excited about the science and loves discussions and possibilities - although he is academic, he tries his best not to be dry and to explain everything easily. I must admit that I skipped some things because I was so engrossed in his theories that just couldn't wait to get to the interesting parts. (Perhaps I should go back and re-read it again with more patience). Loeb is tickled with unexplained presence of something we called Oumuamua that came out of our Solar System and continued tumbling into interstellar space - so far nobody really has explanation, except that science tend to call it probably some weird asteroid - Loeb theorises that it might have been artificial object designed by some other civilisation and builds the book about the ideas of possibilities of extraterrestrial life, other life forms and such. He even mentions panspermia, the possibility that our species arrived from Mars (or some other place) and what struck me as very interesting was his idea that the path of Oumuamua was not random but possibly programmed to avoid any research of its origin:

"The hypothesis that intelligent extraterrestrials designed ‘Oumuamua to be at LSR raises the obvious question: Why would they bother? I can imagine any number of reasons. Perhaps they wanted to set up the interstellar equivalent of a stop sign. Or maybe it was more like a lighthouse—or, more simply, a signpost or navigation marker. A vast network of such buoys could act as a communication grid. Or it could be used as a trip wire, an alert system triggered when one of them was knocked out of LSR. In that spirit, perhaps its creators wanted to disguise its—and their—spatial origins. Putting an object at LSR effectively camouflages who put it there. Why? Because math and a little knowledge of an object’s trajectory is sufficient to trace that object’s origins back to a launchpad; doing that is one of the primary purposes of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Consider as well that any intelligence with a grasp of math and a good map of the universe could trace back to Earth any of the interstellar ships we’ve launched from our planet’s surface."

"Aesop's Fables" as told by Joseph Jacobs (1894)

 

Dear reader, I have not forgotten to go back to my classics. Some time ago I had an idea that it would be good to read some classics from time to time, but eventually got distracted - however, since I am doing well with my reading, I was in the mood for some Aesop's Fables and this must have been long overdue re-visit to something I read decades ago. In fact, I could imagine reading these stories in their various incarnations in my fairy tale collections and probably at the very start of the primary school. Just like "One Thousand and One Nights", these stories seemingly have no origins and are known and beloved all over the planet - even their form (just a short story as told in a few sentences) suggest something told before sleep and without exception, each story has a moral lesson - which turned out to be quite immortal, strangely enough, no matter how many centuries have passed they are surprisingly fresh.

I do clearly remember some of these stories - particularly about the Fox and the Stork sharing a dinner - this was included in one of my childhood fairy tale collections - and it was a delight to re-visit them again. It worked simultaneously as a moral lessons, fairy tales and a beautiful literature. Perhaps the origins of this collection might be interesting to research, but I think its not really important - in my mind there is no doubt that the original Aesop served as a frame where the other stories were added trough the centuries - what really matters is how well these stories work even today and how delightful they are. 

"Soul Survivor: The Autobiography" by P.P. Arnold (2022)

 

 

Back to reading and its a sort of reading renaissance for me, as at certain point I had a serious slump in reading and now this current year I am on fire. For me its all about the right choice, as I my "to read" pile is definitely bigger and more ambitious than realistic, so I simply have to select something that will not be a task but a pleasure. So far this year I swallowed a complete "Silo" trilogy by Hugh Howey and really enjoyed some random choices, like Nigerian writer Nuzo Onoh, horror works by Robert McCammon and Stephen King, even glanced at historical fiction (Jennifer Saint) but curiously, I stayed away from my real, true love - music biographies. Knowing that this is something I easily gravitate towards, I kind of control this impulse, otherwise my reading list would be just celebrity memoirs. (I did sneaked in a book about Phil Spector and one by Nick Tosches on my reading list this year, but they were short and not demanding) At this point, it looks as I am deserving a threat for myself so I took autobiography of P.P. Arnold and, unsurprisingly, swallowed the whole darn thing in just a few days. 

As a lifelong fan of Tina Turner I am aware of the majority of people who were in her orbit, so I knew about P.P. Arnold - she was one of The Ikettes who was convinced (by Mick Jagger, no less) to stay in UK and try a solo career, instead of going back home. For one glowing moment, Arnold was in the spotlight, with two hits to her name: "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (written by young and upcoming Cat Stevens) and "Angel of the Morning" - but the hits, along the music career, eventually fizzled away and she spent decades floating between UK and US, trying to put her career back on track. 

Even if Arnold herself was just a footnote in 1960s pop, "Soul Survivor: The Autobiography" bursts with fascinating anecdotes and insights of music business of swinging London - simply by being an Ikette, she was instantly fascinating to most of UK audiences who idolised black American artists. She was there with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Brian Jones, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, David Bowie, George Harrison, The Bee Gees, Lulu and the list goes on forever. There are many interesting stories and observations, but sadly, the book eventually changes tone and becomes quite somber and cautionary, even as Arnold keeps a brave face and philosophically accepts her lot. What strikes me the most fascinating here is the understanding that the talent itself is not enough - it is assumed - but for a success, one needs much more, like right contacts, management, connections and the whole decision how to present yourself not just to audiences but to a musicians as well. It makes one appreciate even more, the later renaissance of Tina Turner who could easily have been just another forgotten casualty, but managed to break away and bulldoze her way to the top again.

"On the way back, we stopped at a quaint little pub off the motorway and sat in the garden for high tea: smoked salmon sandwiches, scones with preserves and clotted cream and of course tea. Marianne was in one of her ‘Lady of the Manor versus the Ghetto Mistress’ moods and began bitchily comparing my Watts roots with hers as daughter of a baroness. I was in no mood to put up with this and simply ignored her. I didn’t want to get into an argument in front of the children. I was hungry and refused to let her spoil the afternoon. Back at Cheyne Walk, I was surprised when Mick rushed Marianne into the house to a waiting doctor, who gave her an injection. This may have explained her behaviour. She needed her drugs and was having withdrawals."

"In 1968, Maurice Gibb had fallen in love with the singer Lulu and she and the family desperately wanted Barry to produce her with Maurice, but she was not Barry’s cup of tea and he had no intention of doing so. She very much wished to be Britain’s female soul favourite. I was this American outsider and she sometimes showed up at our sessions and put out very negative energy, showing me no love at all. By contrast, Dusty Springfield, who was Britain’s actual female soul favourite, was always warm and friendly with me."