Singer Cleo Laine, regarded as Britain's greatest jazz voice, dies at 97

Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain's greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97.

The Stables, a charity and venue Laine founded with her late jazz musician husband John Dankworth, said Friday it was "greatly saddened" by the news that "one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away." Monica Ferguson, artistic director of The Stables, said Laine "will be greatly missed, but her unique talent will always be remembered." Laine's career spanned the Atlantic and crossed genres: She sang the songs of Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg and Robert Schumann; she acted on stage and on film, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten's 'Noye's Fludde.' Laine's life and art were intimately bound up with band leader Dankworth, who gave her a job and her stage name in 1951, and married her seven years later. Both were still performing after their 80th birthdays. Dankworth died in 2010 at 82.

In 1997, Laine became the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.

"It is British jazz that should have received the accolade for its service to me," she said when the honour was announced. "It has given me a wonderful life, a successful career and an opportunity to travel the globe doing what I love to do." Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927. Her father, Alexander Campbell, was a Jamaican who loved opera and earned money during the Depression as a street singer. Despite hard times, her British mother, Minnie, made sure that her daughter had piano, voice and dance lessons.

She began performing at local events at age 3, and at age 12 she got a role as a movie extra in "The Thief of Bagdad." Leaving school at 14, Laine went to work as a hairdresser and faced repeated rejection in her efforts to get a job as a singer.

A decade later, in 1951, she tried out for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, and succeeded. "Clementina Campbell" was judged too long for a marquee, so she became Cleo Laine.

"John said that when he heard me, I didn't sound like anyone else who was singing at the time," Laine once said. "I guess the reason I didn't get the other jobs is that they were looking for a singer who did sound like somebody else." Laine had a remarkable range, from tenor to contralto, and a sound often described as "smoky." A reviewer for Variety in 2002 found her voice going strong: "a dark, creamy voice, remarkable range and control from bottomless contralto to a sweet clear soprano. Her perfect pitch and phrasing is always framed with musical imagination and good taste." Perhaps Laine's most difficult performance of all was on February 6, 2010, at a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the concert venue she and Dankworth had founded at their home, during which Laine and both of her children performed.

"I'm terribly sorry that Sir John can't be here today," Laine told the crowd at the end of the show. "But earlier on my husband died in hospital." Laine said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 that the secret of her longevity was that "I was never a complete belter." "There was always a protective side in me, and an inner voice always said, 'Don't do that — it's not good for you and your voice.'" Laine is survived by her son and daughter.

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