Ffeil / File 28/13/11 - Women In Jazz

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 rôles 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.