Cleo Laine in 1950s

Young Cleo backed with a the Dave Lee Quintet, singing four songs about April.
Her voice back than was simply magical - rich, unique, instantly recognisable and sensuous. The singing was clearly very much of the 1950s, which means polite and subdued crooning (no wild scatting or dizzying heights yet) but oh, what a fire under the ice. She might have been all buttoned up (like on a cover photo) but she was clearly one of the best voices around. The band swings lightly behind her and songs are fine, one of them written specially for her ("April Age") by Alec Wilder. Not in the same league as her later work but interesting from historical perspective.

Johnny Dankworth struck gold when he discovered young Clementine Campbell and added her to his band as vocalist.
Her voice was so unusual that none of her previous auditions was successful - this was the first time somebody actually thought about giving her a chance and she was soon a sensation of "Johnny Dankworth Seven" gigs. On this early, 4-song EP recording she chirps four American jazz standards with a voice that was cute but still not fully developed as in the next decade or two. Its a seductive alto capable of hitting high notes out of the air and the guys in the backing band are energetic, specially on "I Got Rhythm" where they emulate their American colleagues.

Laine had already recorded Shakespeare song ("It Was A Lover And His Lass") as early as 1955. so the idea of 4- song EP jazz recording of all-Shakespeare material has been around for a while. It was also a welcome change of scenery from usual "American songbook" repertoire, clearly these British musicians had something new (eccentric?) to say. On these four songs she was backed by excellent musicians (french horn, vibes, oboe, flute) and the music is inspired - Dankworth composed sparkling little ideas around Shakespeare's poetry and Laine matches him note for note with her magnificent voice. In a retrospective, this little EP recording was just a rehearsal for later LP album "Shakespeare And All That Jazz" in 1964. where all these songs were repeated and re-recorded. Laine herself was always proud of her excursions in poetry and would return to Shakespeare many times trough following decades.