Versatile vocalist straddled jazz, classical, pop and musical theatre with four-octave range, and collaborated for decades with husband, John Dankworth
Dame Cleo Laine, the UK’s most successful and celebrated jazz singer, has died aged 97.
A statement from her children Jacqui and Alec reads: “It is with deepest sadness that we announce the passing of our dearly beloved mother, Cleo, who died peacefully yesterday afternoon. We will all miss her terribly. The family wish to be given space to grieve and ask for privacy at this very difficult time.”
She was well known for a longstanding collaboration with her late husband, the composer and reed player John Dankworth, singing with his jazz bands from the mid-1950s onwards. But she also had a stellar solo career, including in the US, where she became the only female artist to be nominated for Grammy awards in pop, jazz and classical categories; few singers have the versatility to deliver atonal Arnold Schoenberg pieces and to have duetted with Ray Charles.
Laine was born in Uxbridge, west London, in 1927, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an English farmer’s daughter (her original name was Clementina Campbell, though she was registered at birth as Clementine Bullock, her mother’s surname). She was raised in nearby Southall and had an unassuming youth, working at various jobs after leaving school including as a hairdresser, librarian and pawnbroker. Still a teenager, she married George Langridge and had a son, Stuart.
