Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 2005-2006 (Creation)
Level of description
Ffeil / File
Extent and medium
1 folder
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Material relating to events held to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Women's Jazz Archive/Women in Jazz, highlighted by a gala evening at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Centre featuring Women in Jazz patron Dame Cleo Laine, which also included a performance of Before Freedom; together with material relating to funding for the anniversary events. The gala evening coincided with events to mark Black History Month in October 2006.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Correspondence arranged chronologically.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Cleo Laine was born Clementine Dinah Bullock in Uxbridge, Middlesex to a black Jamaican father and white English mother. She worked in a variety of jobs early in life before taking up professional singing in her mid-20s. Aged 24, she joined musician and composer John Dankworth's band (and later orchestra) the Dankworth Seven, with whom she performed until 1958. Cleo Laine and John Dankworth married that same year and continued their musical collaboration until Dankworth's death in 2010. Laine began touring internationally in 1972, usually supported by her husband's band or orchestra, and by the late 1990s her shows were selling out across the globe. Her acting career had taken off since the 1950s, when she had taken leading rĂ´les in works by the new wave of playwrights such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter. Laine was made Dame Commander in the 1997 New Year's Honours List. She is best known for her three- to four-octave range and vocal adaptability, particularly her trademark 'scat' technique.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Laine, Cleo, b. 1927 (Subject)