Dame
Cleo Laine DBE, (born Clementina Dinah Campbell on 28 October 1927 in Southall,
Middlesex, England) is a jazz vocalist and stage actress. She was known as the
"Queen of Jazz" in her singing prime.
Famed
singer and stage actress Cleo Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell on
October 28, 1927, in Southall, Middlesex, England. Born to a Jamaican father
and an English mother, Laine began taking vocal and dance lessons as a
teenager, and dropped out of school at the age of 14 to begin her quest to find
a singing career. In 1951, she joined the Johnny Dankworth Seven, a well-known
jazz band, as their singer, and changed her name to the more stage-ready
"Cleo Laine."
Cleo
Laine sang with the Johnny Dankworth Seven for seven years, building quite a
following along the way. Her most dedicated follower might have been Dankwork
himself, as the two married in 1958—the same year that Laine took her first
stage role, in Flesh to a Tiger. That year also marked the beginning of a
friendship with Ella Fitzgerald, which would last a lifetime. Tiger led to
other stage performances, including Valmouth (1959), A Time to Laugh (1962) and
Showboat (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. By 1964, Laine
had become a full-time solo performer, and her albums Shakespeare and All That
Jazz and Live at the London Palladium made her a critical darling (the London
Times even went so far as to dub her "the best singer in the world").
The
1970s, however, would really find Laine's star rising, as her 1972 New York
concert—her first—brought the critics out in droves, and she debuted at
Carnegie Hall in 1973. Her show at the famed New York venue was recorded and
released as Live at Carnegie Hall, which earned Laine her first Grammy Award
nomination.
Two Carnegie follow-up albums soon appeared, Return to Carnegie and Cleo at Carnegie: The 10th Anniversary Concert, with the latter earning Laine the 1983 Grammy for best female jazz vocalist.
Laine
also garnered more acting accolades during this time, including a Theatre World
Award and a Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway musical The
Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985). In 1989, she was back in the spotlight with her
critically acclaimed role as the witch in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods,
staged in Los Angeles, California, where, two years later, she would receive a
Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. recording industry.
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."
Laine
published her autobiography, Cleo, in 1994, and followed it three years later
with You Can Sing If You Want To. She continued to perform with her husband of
52 years, Sir John Dankworth, until his death in 2010. (Info
mainly biography.com)
1 comment:
For Cleo Laine’s 1962 album “All About Me” go here :
http://www71.zippyshare.com/v/53022472/file.html
1. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
2. I Don't Know Why
3. I Want To Be Happy
4. I Think Of You
5. I Can Dream Can't I
6. All About Me
7. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
8. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
9. I'm A Dreamer Arn't We All
10. I'm Just Wild About Harry
11. I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire
12. I'll Be Around / All About Me
A Big thank You to Luigi's 50's & 60's Vinyl Corner for the original post
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