By Associated Press’s Robert Barr
London (AP) Cleo Laine, who was considered by many to be Britain’s greatest contribution to the archetypal American music, passed away. Her husky contralto was one of the most unique voices in jazz. She was ninety-seven.
Laine and her late husband, jazz musician John Dankworth, created the charity and venue The Stables, which announced on Friday that it was deeply saddened by the death of Dame Cleo Laine, one of its founders and Life President.
The Stables’ artistic director, Monica Ferguson, stated that although Laine would be sorely missed, her special gift will never be forgotten.
Over the course of her career, Laine performed on stage and screen, sung songs by Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg, and Robert Schumann, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde.
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Dankworth, the band’s leader, gave Laine a job and her stage name in 1951 and married her seven years later, thereby entangling her life and creativity. Even after turning 80, both were still performing. At age 82, Dankworth passed away in 2010.
Laine was the first jazz musician from Britain to be appointed a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in 1997.
When the award was revealed, she stated that British jazz should have been recognized for its service to her. It has provided me with a great life, a prosperous career, and the chance to pursue my passion of traveling the world.
Clementina Dinah Campbell was Laine’s birth name in 1927. Alexander Campbell, her father, was a Jamaican who worked as a street performer during the Depression and loved opera. Her British mother, Minnie, made sure her daughter had dancing, piano, and voice lessons despite the difficult times.
At the age of three, she started playing at neighborhood gatherings, and at twelve, she was cast as a movie extra in The Thief of Bagdad. Laine left school at the age of 14 to work as a hairdresser and was repeatedly turned down for a singing career.
She made a successful tryout for the Johnny Dankworth Seven ten years later, in 1951. After being deemed too lengthy for a marquee, Clementina Campbell changed her name to Cleo Laine.
Laine once remarked, “When John heard me, I didn’t sound like anyone else who was singing at the time.” They were searching for a vocalist that did sound like someone else, which is probably why I didn’t get the other jobs.
Laine’s range was impressive, ranging from tenor to contralto, and her tone was frequently characterized as smokey.
Dankworth recalled Laine’s audition in an interview with the Irish Independent.
They were all sitting there looking stony-faced, so I asked Jimmy Deuchar, the hardest nut of them all and a very sullen-looking Scottish trumpet player, if he felt she had something. Something? “She has it all,” he said.
Laine was given 6 pounds per week, but she insisted on getting 7 pounds instead.
Even though I don’t think I was scruffy, they used to call me such. She told the Irish Independent, “I just didn’t know how to put things together as well as the other singers of the day because I came from the sticks.” Furthermore, they weren’t paying me enough, so I didn’t have the money.
The recognition came quickly. In the Melody Maker girl singer category, Laine placed second in 1952 and first in 1956 and 1957.
In 1958, one year after divorcing her first husband, George Langridge, she married Dankworth and left his band. Laine started to feel underutilized as Dankworth’s band gained popularity.
I told him that I wasn’t going to just sit on the band and occasionally sing when he wanted to. In a BBC documentary, she stated, “I decided at that point that I wasn’t going to stay with the band and that I was going to go off and try to do something solo.”
“Will you marry me?” he asked after I announced my departure. That was a clever ruse, wasn’t it?
The date of their marriage was March 18, 1958. Alec, a son, was born in 1960, and Jacqueline, a daughter, in 1963.
Laine had a fulfilling marriage, yet she pursued a profession apart from Dankworth.
In 1985, when performing in The Mystery of Edwin Drood in New York, Laine told The Associated Press, “Whenever someone starts labeling me, I say, Oh, no you don’t, and I go and do something different.”
When she was asked to join the cast of the Royal Court Theatre’s West Indian drama, Flesh to a Tiger, in 1958, she was shocked to learn that she would be playing the lead. This marked the beginning of her stage career. Her performance earned her a Moscow Arts Theatre Award.
Then came Valmouth in 1959, Hedda Gabler in 1970, The Seven Deadly Sins in 1961, and The Trojan Women in 1966.
Laine’s performance as Julie in Jerome Kern’s 1971 play Boat gave her the hit song “Bill.”
After a performance at New York’s Alice Tully Hall in 1972, Laine started to gain popularity in the US. The New York Times gave her an excellent review, despite the fact that it wasn’t well attended.
Her and Dankworth’s sold-out Carnegie Hall performance the following year marked the beginning of a string of well-liked concerts. In 1986, the same year as Cleo at Carnegie received a Grammy, she was nominated for a Tony for The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
She had a dark, creamy voice with amazing range and control from bottomless contralto to a lovely, clean soprano, according to a Variety reviewer in 2002. Her flawless phrasing and pitch are consistently framed by taste and musical inventiveness.
On February 6, 2010, Laine and both of her children sang in a concert commemorating the 40th anniversary of the music venue she and Dankworth had established at their home. This was possibly the most challenging performance Laine had ever done.
At the conclusion of the performance, Laine apologized profusely to the audience for Sir John’s absence today. However, my husband passed away in the hospital earlier.
In a 2003 interview with the Boston Globe, Laine said that she was never a total belter, which was the key to her longevity.
I always had a protective side, and my inner voice would tell me not to do that because it would harm my voice and well-being.
Laine’s daughter and son survive her.
Jill Lawless, a journalist for the Associated Press, contributed. The obituary’s primary author, AP journalist Robert Barr, passed away in 2018.
