25-07-2025
Dame Cleo Laine, British jazz icon and Grammy winner, dies at 97
Dame Cleo Laine, one of the most celebrated voices in British jazz and the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, has died at the age of Stables, the music venue she co-founded with her late husband, jazz musician Sir John Dankworth, confirmed the news of her death, calling her 'a unique talent who will always be remembered.'advertisementLaine's musical range — spanning from rich contralto to clear soprano — made her instantly recognisable. Her career took her across the Atlantic and across genres, from jazz and classical to musical theatre and avant-garde opera. She performed works by composers such as Kurt Weill and Benjamin Britten, and even portrayed God in Britten's Noye's Fludde.
Born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927 to a British mother and Jamaican father, Laine's route to fame was set in 1951 when she auditioned for Johnny Dankworth's band, the Dankworth to the Associated Press, she was signed to the band and given a new name Cleo Laine reflecting her distinctive voice. She married Dankworth in 1958. While the couple often worked together, Laine built a thriving solo first appeared on stage in 1958 and soon became well-known across the UK and the US. Laine earned a Tony nomination for The Mystery of Edwin Drood and a Grammy Award for Cleo at Carnegie.- Ends
