Cleo Laine
Laine in 1997
Background information
Birth name	Clementine Dinah Bullock
Born	28 October 1927 (age 92) Uxbridge, Middlesex, England
Genres	Jazz, pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress
Years active	1950–present

Johnny Dankworth The Roulette Years Video
Johnny Dankworth And Cleo Laine
Johnny Dankworth The Roulette Years 2017
Johnny Dankworth The Roulette Years Full

JimboUK 28th Aug 2012: African Waltz was a single hit in the UK for John Dankworth (so much so that his band played it for a queen on the 1962 Royal Variety Performance), but the original (on which this is closely modelled) was by the Cannonball Adderley big band. Track List Disc 1 Crazy Rhythm (The Vintage Years) The Breeze and I (The Vintage Years) Swinging the Blues (The Vintage Years) Don't Get Around Much Anymore (The Vintage Years) I Can't Get Started (The Vintage Years) How Deep Is the Ocean (The Vintage Years) How High the Moon (The Vintage Years) Moonglow (The Vintage Years) Jive at Five (The Vintage Years) Stardust (The Vintage Years) Idaho. This never happened but that title and others were released on LP by Roulette and later appeared on CD 'Johnny Dankworth - The Roulette Years'. In my view, this leaves little doubt as the the recording period even if it is not precise and, by inference,that the band is the same as for the Newport gig. Most of the time the free spins are offered on a specific slot machine, usually a new or promoted slot machine. Popular slot machines for free spins are Starburst, johnny dankworth the roulette years Gonzo’s johnny dankworth the roulette years Quest, Warlords, Mega Fortune Dreams, Scruffy Duck and Dazzle me. Johnny Dankworth & His Orchestra. Jazz From Abroad ‎ (LP, Album) Roulette, Roulette: SR 52096, SR-52096: US: 1962: Sell This Version.

Dame Cleo LaineDBE (born 28 October 1927) is an English jazz and pop singer and an actress, known for her scat singing and for her vocal range. Though her natural range is that of a contralto, she is able to produce a G above high C, giving her an overall compass of well over three octaves.^[1] Laine is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories. She is the widow of jazz composer Sir John Dankworth.

Early life[edit]

Laine was born Clementine Dinah Bullock in Uxbridge, Middlesex,^[2] to unmarried parents:^[3] Alexander Sylvan Campbell, a black Jamaican who worked as a building labourer^[4] and regularly busked,^[5] and Minnie Bullock, a white English farmer's daughter from Swindon, Wiltshire. The family moved round constantly, but most of Laine's childhood was spent in Southall. She attended the Board School there on Featherstone Road (later known as Featherstone Primary School) and was sent by her mother for singing and dancing lessons at an early age. She went on to attend Mellow Lane Senior School in Hayes^[4] before going to work as an apprentice hairdresser, a hat-trimmer, a librarian, and in a pawnbroker's shop.^[3]

In 1946, under the name Clementina Dinah Campbell,^[6] Laine married George Langridge, a roof tiler, with whom she had a son, Stuart. The couple divorced in 1957.^[7]^[8] It was not until 1953, when she was 26 and applying for a passport for a forthcoming tour of Germany, that Laine found out her real birth name, due to her parents not being married at the time and her mother registering her under her own name.^[3]

Career[edit]

Cleo Laine (1962)

Laine did not take up singing professionally until her mid-twenties. Her early influences as a singer were Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Judy Garland and Lena Horne.^{[citation needed]} She auditioned successfully, at the age of 24, for John Dankworth's small group, the Dankworth Seven, and later his orchestra, with which she performed until 1958. Dankworth and Laine married that year^[4] in secret at HampsteadRegister Office. The only witnesses were the couple's friend, pianist Ken Moule, and Dankworth's arranger, David Lindup. The couple had two children, who are both successful musicians in their own right: Alec who lives in the US, and Jacqui, a British singer who has released a number of albums.^[9]

She played the lead in a new play at London's Royal Court Theatre, home of the new wave of playwrights of the 1950s such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter. This led to other stage performances, such as the musical Valmouth in 1959, the play A Time to Laugh (with Robert Morley and Ruth Gordon) in 1962, Boots With Strawberry Jam (with John Neville) in 1968, and eventually to her role as Julie La Verne in Wendy Toye's production of Show Boat at the Adelphi Theatre in London in 1971.^[10]Show Boat had its longest run to date in that London season with 910 performances staged.^[11]

During this period, she had two major recording successes. 'You'll Answer to Me' reached the British Top 10 while Laine was 'prima donna' in the 1961 Edinburgh Festival production of Kurt Weill's opera/ballet The Seven Deadly Sins, directed and choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan. In 1964 her Shakespeare and All that Jazz album with Dankworth was well received. Dankworth and Laine founded the Stables theatre in 1970 in what was the old stables block in the grounds of their home. It was an immediate success, with 47 concerts given in the first year.

Laine's international activities began in 1972, with a successful first tour of Australia. Shortly afterwards, her career in the United States was launched with a concert at New York's Lincoln Center, followed in 1973 by the first of many Carnegie Hall appearances. Coast-to-coast tours of the US and Canada soon followed, and with them a succession of record albums and television appearances, including The Muppet Show in 1977.^[12] This led, after several nominations, to her first Grammy award, in recognition of the live recording of her 1983 Carnegie concert. She has continued to tour periodically, including in Australia in 2005.^[13]

She has collaborated with James Galway, Nigel Kennedy, Julian Lloyd Webber and John Williams. Other important recordings during that time were duet albums with Ray Charles (Porgy and Bess) as well as Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, for which she received a Grammy Award nomination.

Laine's relationship with the musical theatre started in Britain and continued in the United States with starring performances in Sondheim's A Little Night Music and Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow (Michigan Opera). In 1980 she starred in Colette, a musical by Dankworth. The show began at the Stables theatre, Wavendon, in 1979 and transferred to the Comedy Theatre, London, in September 1980. In 1985 she originated the role of Princess Puffer in the Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for which she received a Tony nomination. In 1989 she received the Los Angeles critics' acclaim for her portrayal of the Witch in Sondheim's Into the Woods.

Johnny Dankworth The Roulette Years Video

In May 1992, Laine appeared with Frank Sinatra for a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London.^[14]

By the late 1990s, Laine's concerts sold out across the globe, usually supported by Dankworth with his band, orchestra or smaller group. Her usual band included John Horler (piano), Alec Dankworth (bass), Allan Ganley (drums) and Mark Nightingale (trombone).

Laine's autobiography, Cleo, was published in September 1994 by Simon & Schuster. Her second book, You Can Sing If You Want To, was published by Victor Gollancz in October 1997. In 2000, she appeared as vocalist Gwen in the movie The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.

Laine performing at Playa Vista, Los Angeles, in 200