Singer Dame Cleo Laine who performed with Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles dies aged 97 as tributes pour in
STAR GONE Singer Dame Cleo Laine who performed with Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles dies aged 97 as tributes pour in
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LEGENDARY jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine has died aged 97.
Her career spanned decades as she became the first British singer to win a Grammy Award for jazz.
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Legendary jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine is dead at 97
Credit: Getty
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Her music career spanned over seven decades
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Laine performed with jazz legends like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. Pictured with Ray Charles in 1976
Credit: Getty
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The star frequently collaborated with her composer husband, John Dankworth
Credit: Getty
It led to performances with icons like Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.
Laine boasted a vocal range of four octaves, performing the music of Schoenberg and Spike Milligan.
It paved the way for a distinguished jazz career, as the Sunday Times described her as "quite simply the best singer in the world".
She also frequently collaborated with her husband, musician and composer John Dankworth, beginning in the 1950s.
They later set up the Stables art centre in Buckinghamshire.
In a statement, the centre said it was "greatly saddened today by the news that one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away".
Born as Clementina Dinah Hitching, the star grew up in Southall, Middlesex on October 28, 1927.
She was the daughter of Jamaican WW1 veteran, Alex Campell - a labourer who sang on the side to make enough money.
He married Clementina's mother, Minnie Hitching, who had been disowned by her parents over the interracial relationship.
The prodigy first fell in love with jazz after listening to her brother's records, before starting music lessons.
From the age of three, she would perform at local community shows, aspiring towards an acting career.
It led to her debut at the age of 12 in The Thief of Baghdad where she played a street urchin.
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