It's one of the UK's greatest jazz singers - and "national treasure" - Dame Cleo Laine's birthday today!
All hail - she is still here!
Many happy returns, Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth DBE (born Clementine Dinah Campbell, 28th October 1927)
Showing posts with label Dame Cleo Laine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dame Cleo Laine. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 October 2023
Monday, 30 October 2017
Wonderful you
I have been deep in concentration all day today, at home on study leave - studying the esoteric end of the "leadership and management theory" spectrum, if you really need to know; lord knows I wish I didn't!
Despite the steam that has been rising from my brain-cells since 9am, I have not forgotten that today is a Tacky Music Monday, dear reader; our traditional "opening number" of the week from the glitzy world of showtunes - however, the epithet "tacky" is somewhat of a misnomer when it comes down to the array of talent I have in store...
On Saturday, our beloved Dame Cleo Laine (she of the estimable, and still clear as a bell, jazz tonsils) turned 90 years old. Just this July, she was up and performing at her annual "Dankworth Family Festival" alongside daughter Jacqui, guitarist John Williams, musician Earl Okin and vocalist Lorna Dallas. I couldn't imagine being that energetic if I were her age. Nor even at my age.
And here is the great lady herself - alongside Margaret Whiting, Maureen McGovern, Dionne Warwick, Jack Jones and John Raitt!
Imagine being in that audience...
Many happy returns, Dame Cleo Laine (Lady Dankworth DBE, born Clementine Dinah Bullock, 28th October 1927).
Have a good week, peeps!
Sunday, 28 October 2012
What's hard is simple, what's natural comes hard
That marvellous mistress of the smoky vocal, the sultry showtune and the scat jazz styling, Dame Cleo Laine celebrates her 85th birthday today!
Dame Cleo and the late Sir John Dankworth
I have featured the lady here before (of course), notably on her 80th, but by way of a fitting tribute today - and a prime example of why we adore her - here is a selection of the divine Miss Laine's interpretations of the work of house fave Mr Stephen Sondheim (a sublime combination that I first posted back in 2010, but are so good they bear repeating):
Buy Cleo Sings Sondheim on Amazon
And finally... What on earth?
Eartha Kitt, Phyllis Diller and Cleo Laine playing cricket!
Quarternotes - the home of Dame Cleo Laine and the late Sir John Dankworth
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Not while she's around
For his birthday last month, we burned our friend Alistair a copy of the fantastic album Cleo Laine Sings Sondheim, much to his delight! So much has he enthused about it in the weeks since then, I felt I had to head out on a journey across YouTube to find these extracts. Simply sublime! Enjoy...
Buy Cleo Sings Sondheim on Amazon
Monday, 29 October 2007
Queen of the doo-be-doos
Oh Lordy! Dame Cleo Laine is 80 years old...
Admittedly the grande dame of slightly dodgy "scat" jazz does seem to have been around forever, but it is quite scary to think she's an octogenarian!
Cleo was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in Southall, West London, and during her long career progressed through a variety of stage and musical theatre productions until she hit the mainstream with her marriage to Johnny Dankworth and subsequent career in the very trendy modern jazz scene of the 1960s.
She was not always, however, just a "doo-be-doo" singer of sometimes irritating intensity. She worked with some of the greatest musical writers of the 20th century, and brought genuine vocal mastery and emotion to numbers such as Matelot and Mad About The Boy in a little-known (but a personal favourite!) revue called The Words and Music of Noel Coward, with a seemingly bizarre cast that included Dickie Henderson, Joyce Grenfell and Kenneth Williams. She worked with Sondheim on a production of A Little Night Music, and other notable collaborators included Ray Charles, Mel Tormé, James Galway, George Shearing, Nigel Kennedy, Julian Lloyd Webber and John Williams. And she is still performing today!
Here is an example of just some of this fabulous lady's magic:
Admittedly the grande dame of slightly dodgy "scat" jazz does seem to have been around forever, but it is quite scary to think she's an octogenarian!
Cleo was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in Southall, West London, and during her long career progressed through a variety of stage and musical theatre productions until she hit the mainstream with her marriage to Johnny Dankworth and subsequent career in the very trendy modern jazz scene of the 1960s.
She was not always, however, just a "doo-be-doo" singer of sometimes irritating intensity. She worked with some of the greatest musical writers of the 20th century, and brought genuine vocal mastery and emotion to numbers such as Matelot and Mad About The Boy in a little-known (but a personal favourite!) revue called The Words and Music of Noel Coward, with a seemingly bizarre cast that included Dickie Henderson, Joyce Grenfell and Kenneth Williams. She worked with Sondheim on a production of A Little Night Music, and other notable collaborators included Ray Charles, Mel Tormé, James Galway, George Shearing, Nigel Kennedy, Julian Lloyd Webber and John Williams. And she is still performing today!
Here is an example of just some of this fabulous lady's magic:
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd
"Rest now, my friends.
Soon, I'll unfold you.
Soon you'll know splendours
You never have dreamed
All your days,
My lucky friends
'Til now your shine was merely silver.
Friends, you shall drip rubies, you'll soon drip precious rubies...
AT LAST! MY RIGHT ARM IS COMPLETE AGAIN!"
Possibly the only musical ever written that contains a love song to a box of knives, Sweeney Todd is Stephen Sondheim's darkest work.
With nods to Bertolt Brecht and his Threepenny Opera, this is a musical not for the faint-hearted, especially in its rendition by Bryn Terfel, Maria Friedman and the brilliant cast at the Royal Festival Hall last night!
With his booming voice and commanding stature, Bryn was a truly chilling Sweeney, and Maria Friedman the perfect foil as the cunning and darkly comic Mrs Lovett - each playing to each other's passions, his for murder and revenge, hers for making a profit (a killing?) from making pies out of dead men's flesh.
Suffering slightly from the terrible acoustics (where did they spend all that money when the RFH was refurbished?) and awkward staging, it was still a truly magnificent and spine-tingling evening. A performance that even the uber-talented Johnny Depp is going to struggle to emulate in the forthcoming film version of the musical!
But regardless of any version, one song from Sweeney Todd remains one of the greatest Sondheim ever wrote:
Not While I'm Around
Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around.
Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir, not while I'm around.
Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays,
I'll send 'em howling,
I don't care, I got ways.
No one's gonna hurt you,
No one's gonna dare.
Others can desert you,
Not to worry, whistle, I'll be there.
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around...
Being close and being clever
Ain't like being true
I don't need to,
I would never hide a thing from you,
Like some...
No one's gonna hurt you, no one's gonna dare
Others can desert you,
Not to worry, whistle, I'll be there!
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around...
Cleo Laine singing this song:
Josh Groban (who?) singing this song (very well actually):
Fab.
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