Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Cleo Laine: Live in Manhattan

261

Cleo Laine: Live in Manhattan

By

Sign in to view read count
Cleo Laine: Live in Manhattan
Dame Cleo Laine and her husband, reed player John Dankworth, have been working together since the 1950s and have enjoyed a good deal of success in the United States as well as in their native Great Britain. Although Dame Cleo’s career has included stints in the West End and on Broadway as well as dalliances with the classical repertoire, she has generally been classified as a jazz singer.

Live in Manhattan, recorded in 1998, represents the Dankworths third live recording from Carnegie Hall. Remarkably, the concert finds the then-71-year-old singer still in command of most of her fabled four-octave range. Blessed with a richly textured, smoky alto in her natural register, Dame Cleo is also able to leap into the stratosphere where she can hit notes in falsetto with surprising accuracy.

Dame Cleo’s fans will no doubt find much in these performances to admire. For anyone else, the record proves to be a bit more problematic. The rhythm section sounds flabby and ponderous. Unfortunately, Dame Cleo seems somewhat oblivious to that fact, as she is preoccupied for much of the concert with running up and down her range in perfect unison with Mr. Dankworth’s reeds. It is a virtuoso display of technique that often serves little musical purpose. Indeed, several of these performances appear to be more about eliciting applause than about making music. Similarly, Dame Cleo’s athletic scat singing, although perfectly in tune, lacks the rhythmic drive or harmonic imagination that distinguishes creative improvisation.

Although she has spent much of her career being pushed as a British Ella Fitzgerald, the reality is that Cleo Laine’s greatest strength lies in her interpretive abilities. Her voice, with its endless variety of tonal colors, can convey a sense of hard-earned wisdom. Unfortunately, Mr. Dankworth’s often-busy arrangements rarely allow his wife to settle into a lyric and tell a story.

Still, despite all those limitations and reservations, Live in Manhattan is not without highlights. Dame Cleo deftly weaves together an extended medley of tunes by Vincent Youmans by treating the shifting lyrics as a continuous narrative. She also tears the lid off of a smoking version of “Taking a Chance on Love” that includes several seldom-heard choruses. Performances like these suggest that, perhaps, Cleo Laine’s formidable reputation is not wholly undeserved.

Track Listing

St. Louis Blues, Biding My Time, I Got It Bad And That Ain

Personnel

Cleo Laine
vocals

Cleo Laine: vocals; John Dankworth: clarinet, alto saxophone and soprano saxophone; Tommy James: piano; David Dunaway: bass; Jim Zimmerman: drums; Jay Branford: baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; Robert Magnusun: tenor saxophone and flute.

Album information

Title: Live in Manhattan | Year Released: 2001 | Record Label: Gold Label

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Sensual
Rachel Z
Over and Over
Tony Monaco Trio
Love Is Passing Thru
Roberto Magris

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.