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From her
modest beginnings as a singer in English dance halls, Cleo Laine has
gone on to achieve international fame by continually expanding her
talents in a career, which spans some four decades. She is one of the
most celebrated singers of our time. Cleo commands a dazzling
Laine began her musical career
in the early 50's in her native England, where she was born in a London
suburb. Cleo showed early singing talent, which was nurtured by her
Jamaican father, and English mother who sent her to singing and dancing
lessons. However, it wasn't until her mid-twenties that she seriously
applied herself to singing and auditioned for the hugely successful
British band led by the acclaimed John Dankworth. Cleo toured
extensively with the band and in 1958, she married Dankworth, which
strengthened their bond as personal and professional collaborators.
Together they have toured the world with sold-out engagements before
enthusiastic audiences. In addition to concert
appearances, Cleo has carved a niche as an illustrious actress. Laine's
professional career in the legitimate theatre began in London when she
starred in Flesh to a Tiger, directed by Tony Richardson at the Royal
Court Theatre. Her theatrical credits include A Midsummer Night 's
Dream, Valmouth, Women of Troy and the title role in Ibsen's Hedda
Gabler. Frequently, she has used her
musical and acting talents to full advantage in a diverse collection of
projects including Showboat and Colette in London's West End, The Seven
Deadly Sins as part of the Edinburgh Festival. In the U.S. she appeared
in A Little Night Music and The Merry Widow. She originated the role of
Princess Puffer in the Broadway hit musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood,
for which she received a Tony nomination and earned a Theatre World
Award as well as a Drama Desk nomination for best actress in a musical.
She also starred in the Houston Ballet's production of Lady in Waiting,
an original opera/ballet composed
In 1983 Cleo became the first
British artist to win a coveted Grammy award - Best Female Jazz
Vocalist, for the third of her "live" Carnegie Hall albums,
all recorded at the famous New York auditorium. Ella Fitzgerald, whom
Cleo had befriended many years before on a US tour with husband John
Dankworth's big band, celebrated the occasion by sending Cleo two dozen
roses together with a card reading "Congratulations, gal - and
about time too!". She has been a frequent guest
on American television including such specials as "An Evening at
the Boston Pops With Cleo Laine" and "Cleo Laine: Live at
Wolftrap". In addition to her numerous international television
specials, she has also been a featured performer on the classic British
television show 'That Was The Week That Was". In addition to receiving an
honorary Doctor of Music degree from Boston's prestigious Berkley School
of Music and being named, along with her husband John Dankworth, the
Variety Club's "Show Business Personality of the Year," Cleo
Laine was honoured by Queen Elizabeth with an O.B.E. The beginning of
this decade has already brought Cleo new acclaim with a Presidential
Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the National Association of
Recording Merchandisers (NARM), and a Lifetime Achievement Accolade from
the British Jazz Awards in 1996.
In
the 2006 New Years Honours list, her husband John Dankworth was made a
knight bachelor, becoming Sir John Dankworth. As his wife, she is
entitled to be known as "Lady Dankworth," however,
she prefers to use her own professional name. ALBUMS 1950-52 - Get Happy ESQ317 Reissued in 1985-6 (3 tracks) 1955 - Cleo Sings British (10") - Esquire 1957 - Meet Cleo Laine Cleo Sings - 1957 - In Retrospect - MGM 1957 - She's the Tops - MGM 2354026 1959 - Valmouth (original cast) - Pye 1961 - Jazz Date (with Tubby Hayes) - Wing 1961 - Spotlight on Cleo - 1962 - All About Me - Fontana 196? - Cleo Laine Jazz Master Series - DRG Records MRS 502 1963 - Cindy-Ella (orig cast of 1962 Xmas production) - Decca 1963 - Beyond the Blues (American Negro Poetry) - Argo 1964 - Shakespeare and All that Jazz - Fontana 1964 - This is Cleo Laine - Shakespeare and All That Jazz - Philips 1966 - Woman Talk - Fontana 1967 - Facade (with Annie Ross) British reissue: Philips - Fontana 1968 - If We Lived on Top of a Mountain - Fontana 1968 - Soliloquy - Fontana 1969 - The Idol (Dankworth soundtrack w/ 2 Cleo vocals) - Fontana 1969 - The Unbelievable Miss Cleo Laine - Fontana 1971 - Portrait - Philips 1972 - An Evening with Cleo Laine and the John Dankworth Quartet - Philips, Sepia 1972 - Feel the Warm - Philips 1972 - Showboat (single LP) - EMI-Columbia 1972 - Showboat (double LP) - EMI/Stanyan 1972 - This is Cleo Laine - EMI 1973 - I Am A Song - RCA 1973 - Day by Day - Stanyan 1974 - Live at Carnegie Hall - RCA 1974 - Close-Up - RCA 1974 - Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg) Ives Songs - RCA 1974 - A Beautiful Thing (with James Galway) - RCA 1974 - Easy Living (anthology of Fontana tracks) - RCA 1974 - Spotlight on Cleo Laine (double LP) - Philips 1974 - Cleo's Choice - Pye 1975 - Cleo's Choice (abridged issue on Quintessence Jazz) - Quintessence 1975 - The Unbelievable Miss Cleo Laine - Contour 6870675 1975 - Born on a Friday - RCA 1976 - Close-Up (re-issue?) - Victor 1976 - Live at the Wavendon Festival - BBC (Black Lion) 1976 - Porgy & Bess (with Ray Charles) - London 1976 - Return to Carnegie - RCA 1976 - Best Friends (with John Williams) - RCA 1976 - Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz in the '70's - RCA 1977 - 20 Famous Show Hits - Arcade 1977 - The Sly Cormorant (read by Cleo and Brian Patten) - Argo (Decca) 19?? - Romantic Cleo - RCA 42750 1978 - Showbiz Personalities of 1977 - 9279304 1978 - The Early Years - Pye GH653 1978 - Gonna Get Through - RCA 1978 - A Lover & His Lass - Esquire Treasure 1978 - Wordsongs (double LP) - RCA 1979 - One More Day - DRG 1979 - The Cleo Laine Collection (double LP) - RCA 1980 - Cleo's Choice (re-issue?) - Pickwick 1980 - Collette (original cast) - Sepia 1980 -Sometimes When We Touch (with James Galway) - RCA 1980 - The Incomparable - Black Lion BLM51006 1981 - One More Day - Sepia 1982 - Smilin' Through (with Dudley Moore) - CBS 1983 - Platinum Collection (double LP) - Magenta 1983 - Off the Record - WEA Sierra GFE DD1003 1984 - Let the Music Take You (w/ John Williams) - CBS 1985 - Cleo at Carnegie - the 10th Anniversary Concert - RCA 1985 - That Old Feeling - CBS 1985 - "Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra, 1985 - The John Dankworth 7 - featuring Cleo Laine" - EMI 1986 - Wordsongs - Westminster 1986 - The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Philips 1986 - Unforgettable - 16 Golden Classics - Castle 1986 - Cleo Laine - The Essential Collection - Sierra 1987 - Unforgettable - PRT 1987 - Classic Gershwin (1 track on this CD—Embraceable You) - CBS 1988 - Cleo Laine Sings Sondheim - RCA 1988 - Showboat (re-issue of 1972 cast album) - EMI/Stanyan 1988 - Cleo Laine & John Dankworth - Shakespeare and All That Jazz - Affinity 1989 - Woman to Woman - RCA 1989 - Jazz - RCA 1989 - Portrait of a Song Stylist - Harmony 1991 - Young At Heart - Castle ATJCD 5959 1991 - Spotlight on Cleo Laine - Phonogram 848129.2 1991 - Pachebel's Greatest Hits (1 track) - RCA 1992 - Nothing Without You (with Mel Torme) - Concord 1993 - On the Town (1 track) 1994 - I Am a Song - RCA 1994 - Blue and Sentimental - RCA 1995 - Solitude - RCA 1997 - The Very Best of Cleo Laine - RCA 1997 - Mad About the Boy - Abracadabra 1998 - Ridin' High (Early Sessions) - Koch 1998 - Trav'lin' Light: The Johnny Mercer Songbook (1 track) - Verve 1998 - Let's Be Frank (1 track) - MCA 1998 - The Collection - Spectrum Music 1999 - Sondheim Tonight - Live From the Barbican (1 track) - Jay 1999 - The Best of Cleo Laine - Redial 1999 - The Silver Anniversary Concert (Carnegie Hall, Limited Edition) - Sepia 1999 - Christmas at the Stables 2001 - Quintessential Cleo - Gold Label 2001 - Live in Manhattan - Gold Label 2002 - Quality Time - Universal/Absolute 2003 - Loesser Genius - Qnote |
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of vocal styles and is the only singer ever to receive Grammy
nominations in the Female Jazz, Popular, and Classical categories. 
by
John Dankworth, Benny Green and J. Renault-Williams; She played the
voice of "God" in the BBC Proms' production of Benjamin
Britten's Noyes Fludde -- quite a different role than that of "The
Witch" in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods in which Cleo starred
in Los Angeles receiving a nomination by the L.A. drama critics for best
lead performance. 
