Cleo Laine

Writing about Anita o'Day I got inspired to write about my other favorite Jazz singer - Cleo Laine.

Many years ago,when I still worked as journalist, croatian Jazz singer Zdenka Kovačiček recommended her to me. She was nice enough to actually lent me LP from her own collection and I still remember looking at the photo of Cleo & her husband John Dankworth thinking "this must be some famous producer pushing his sexy housewife". Talk about wrong impression!

Than I put a LP on and was thinking "hm,she is actually not bad at all" - few years later I found myself living in London and discovered that Cleo Laine is in fact far more known internationally than her saxophone-playing husband. Not really planning, I collected almost everything she had ever recorded and have more than 40 original albums in my collection.

Most of Jazz greats are from USA so its somewhat natural that their european colleagues were looked upon as pale imitation of "real thing" - after all, they grew up listening rare & imported recordings of american Jazz musicians but would eventually add their own little touch to the music. Dankworth was already famous player who led his own popular band in 1950s when he auditioned for girl singer to join his boys, when Clementine Campbell came along with her unusual deep voice and stunning looks - her name was changed into more exciting "Cleo Laine" (boys have chosen her name from the hat!) and she would eventually became star of the first order, going solo and building successful career during 1950s and 1960s in both music and theatre. Dankworth who became her husband often backed her on concerts and on records, tutoring her how to explore her natural husky voice into stratospheric heights and thanks to him she really became sensational singer with wide repertoire that went from Shakespeare, American Songbook, Carole King and Bessie Smith to musicals and anything in between.

Known locally during 1950s and 1960s, Laine was finally introduced to USA audience when she was already well in her 40s, after american tourists started to rave about her performance in successful London version of musical "Show Boat" (she was probably the first ever real mixed-blooded Julie - interesting to point because the whole story is about Julie hiding her secret and not looking obviously black) so she was finally showered with media frenzy after Carnegie Hall debut. Her voice,looks,repertoire and stylish presence were intriguing to Jazz musicians who didn't expect such talent coming from UK - she went on to became international star touring all over the world, recording best selling LPs, collecting awards and being the only singer ever to get nominated for "Grammy" in Jazz,Pop AND Classical genre.

Beautiful,beautiful voice - she always was a attractive lady but the voice really blew me away and still does after all these years. I prefer her 1960s recordings when voice was even deeper than later, though must admit she had recorded some excellent albums even during 1980s and 1990s (and beyond). Both Laine and her husband believed that music should not be boxed or categorized so they had built a music centre in their own backyard where they would give free music lessons in the summer,often inviting famous colleagues to join them. It became known as "Stables" and grew into really big deal. Recently "Stables" celebrated 40th anniversary and it was a spectacular superstars evening - at the end of the evening Laine announced how sorry she is that her husband could not be with them that evening and finally told the secret, he actually died earlier that morning in the hospital. They were married for more than 50 years,always lived & worked together and she still decided to go on with the concert because she knew that he would do the same thing for her.

Both Laine and Dankworth are awarded many times, they are the only Jazz musician couple who are bestowed title "Dame" and "Sir" by Queen Elizabeth II. They have two children who are also musicians. Now an elderly lady with still beautiful voice (I heard her on several occasions live in concert when she was deep into her 70s and she was always spectacular) she is celebrated and often performs as a extra guest in concerts. Not as big star as she once was - media usually prefers younger stars - but still loved & remembered. I love her dearly and listen her music with the biggest pleasure quite often when I want to hear really incredible voice.



(she wrote the lyrics!)