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Cleo Laine and Jacqui Dankworth (2010)
Visit Website (Photo by Pat Johnson)	Born just outside London, England, in the late 1920s, Cleo Laine, in the words to "Sweet Georgia Brown" knocks them dead when she comes to town, and has been doing so for over half a century. Cleo began her career as a singer and actress in the 1950s, and in the 1971 London production of "Show Boat" at the Adelphi Theatre was a show-stopping Julie, one of the first genuinely mixed-race actresses to appear in a role the essence of which was her being, in fact, of mixed race. Cleo's 50-year marriage to band-leader, composer, arranger and saxophonist John Dankworth produced not only many magical musical moments, but also two well-adjusted children, Alec and Jacqui, both of whom are professional musicians, Alec a bassist and Jacqui, like her mother, a singer. It seems that Cleo's own voice has always been fluid and flexible with a range of several octaves, but as Cleo tells it (either the way it really was or else with modesty) she'd originally had difficulty in finding work as a singer (and auditioned for the John Dankworth Seven in high summer while wearing a borrowed fur coat because she "was a bit of a scruff"), and had "about a one-octave range … down in my boots". Be that as it may, Cleo's voice at 82 is still the envy of many half her age. She's the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in all of the categories jazz, popular and classical. Ever the complete package, Cleo has never stopped acting: in 1985 she was a Tony-nominated Princess Puffer in the Broadway hit musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and four years later was acclaimed for her portrayal of the Witch in Steven Sondheim's "Into the Woods" (a show in the first London production of which, by coincidence, daughter Jacqui appeared). In 1979, Cleo became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music, an honor, and 18 years later received a promotion, as it were, by two levels to become a Dame of the Order of the British Empire (DBE—the female counterpart of a knight).

Cleo Laine and Jacqui Dankworth (2010)

Visit Website

(Photo by Pat Johnson)

Born just outside London, England, in the late 1920s, Cleo Laine, in the words to "Sweet Georgia Brown" knocks them dead when she comes to town, and has been doing so for over half a century.

Cleo began her career as a singer and actress in the 1950s, and in the 1971 London production of "Show Boat" at the Adelphi Theatre was a show-stopping Julie, one of the first genuinely mixed-race actresses to appear in a role the essence of which was her being, in fact, of mixed race.

Cleo's 50-year marriage to band-leader, composer, arranger and saxophonist John Dankworth produced not only many magical musical moments, but also two well-adjusted children, Alec and Jacqui, both of whom are professional musicians, Alec a bassist and Jacqui, like her mother, a singer.

It seems that Cleo's own voice has always been fluid and flexible with a range of several octaves, but as Cleo tells it (either the way it really was or else with modesty) she'd originally had difficulty in finding work as a singer (and auditioned for the John Dankworth Seven in high summer while wearing a borrowed fur coat because she "was a bit of a scruff"), and had "about a one-octave range … down in my boots". Be that as it may, Cleo's voice at 82 is still the envy of many half her age. She's the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in all of the categories jazz, popular and classical.

Ever the complete package, Cleo has never stopped acting: in 1985 she was a Tony-nominated Princess Puffer in the Broadway hit musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and four years later was acclaimed for her portrayal of the Witch in Steven Sondheim's "Into the Woods" (a show in the first London production of which, by coincidence, daughter Jacqui appeared).

In 1979, Cleo became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music, an honor, and 18 years later received a promotion, as it were, by two levels to become a Dame of the Order of the British Empire (DBE—the female counterpart of a knight).

Pick	Artist	Album	Song	Label
# 1	John Dankworth	Jazz Matters	Prologue and Fugue	Qnote
# 2	Jacqui Dankworth	Back to You	Beppo	Audacious
# 3	Charlie Wood	Flutter and Wow	What You Will	Archer Records
# 4	Shirley Horn	Here's to Life	Come a Little Closer/Wild Is the Wind	Verve
# 5	Lizz Wright	Salt	Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly	Verve
# 6	Jacqui Dankworth	It Happens Quietly	The Man	not yet commercially available
# 7	Cleo Laine and Jacqui Dankworth	I Hear Music	Over Hill, Over Dale	Salvo

Book	Cleo: Charles Dickens, Complete Works Jacqui: A collection of poetry by Rumi

Luxury Item	Cleo: A strong tent to keep things away Jacqui: A cement mixer to build a swimming pool (Jacqui is afraid of sharks)

Castaways by dateNo castaways found for 2023.