Cleo Laine (1927-2025)

Cleo Laine, Britain's finest and most-celebrated jazz-pop singer who, with tenor saxophonist Johnny Dankworth, began recording together in 1951 but became much better known in the U.K. than in the U.S., died on July 24. She was 97.

Dankworth and Laine married in 1958, and over the course of her career, she was showered with British awards and royal titles. In the U.S., she won a Grammy in 1986 for her Cleo at Carnegie album and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Laine recorded more than 50 live and studio albums. It's unclear why she didn't have a stronger jazz presence in the U.S. in the 1960s. Part of the reason may have been due to Laine and Dankworthy's reluctance to tour beyond New York.

Laine had a mixed-racial background (a black Jamaican father and a white English mother) and an interracial marriage at a time when touring in many regions of the U.S. would have been risky. Though Pearl Baily and Louie Bellson were married, they often performed separately.

Her only British rival was Shirley Bassey, who also was beloved in the U.K. and rarely performed in America but was more of a theatrical pop entertainer than a singer influenced by jazz and club performances. Laine was exceptional on many levels and was highly versatile, shifting from jazz to Broadway, soul, pop rock and other genres. In addition, she often took on terrific songs that today remain rarely recorded or performed.

To have a better sense of why Laine was special, here are 13 of my favorite clips plus bonus videos:

Here's Lush Life with the Johnny Dankworth Seven in 1951. Laine was the first British female vocalist to record the song (Kay Davis sang the Billy Strayhorn ballad at Carnegie Hall with Duke Ellington in 1948), and she followed Ellington's performance in 1948, and Nat King Cole's studio recording in 1949...  



Here's It Was a Lover and His Lass in 1955, with the Johnny Dankworth Seven...



Here's I Dedicate Love from her 1956 album The April Age: Cleo Laine With the David Lee Quintet...



Here's Early Autumn in 1957, from her album Cleo Laine Sings...



Here's Indian Summer in 1957 from her album with the David Lindup Orchestra, accompanied here only by pianist David Lee...



Here's I Think of You in 1962 from her album accompanied by the Johnny Keating's Orchestra...



Here's It Was a Lover and His Lass in 1964 from her Shakespeare and All That Jazz, one of best albums...



Here's Laine on the BBC's Jazz 625 TV series, singing Lady Be Good with an ensemble led by Johnny Dankworth...



Here's Woman Talk, from the same show...



Here's On a Clear Day in the early 1970s, from her album Portrait...



Here's I Believe You in 1978, from her album Gonna Get Through...



And here's Before Love Went Out of Style in 1982, from her album Smilin' Through, with pianist Dudley Moore...



Here's the title track from her 1980 album Sometimes When We Touch with James Galway on flute...



Bonus. Here's Mistress Mine from the rare and exceptional Cleo Sings Elizabethan from 1959...



Here's a medley with Sarah Vaughan on the BBC in 1977...



And here's Laine in a BBC TV special highlighting her album Cleo Sings Sondheim in 1987. A shame they didn't stick with Ceo in the studio rather than creating silly scenes illustrating songs. But hey, it was the late 1980s...