Cleoellingtonia - Dame Cleo and the Duke

Dame Cleo Laine, OBE, died on July 24, 2025 aged 97 at her home in Wavendon, Buckinghamshire. Dame Cleo, while celebrated mostly as a jazz vocalist explored a wide range of musical idioms. From pop material of the day to interpreting Shakespeare sonnets as well as Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire on the opera stage. She also appeared regularly on the iconic BBC television show That Was The Week That Was (1962-63) as well as a role in a 2000 TV movie - The Last of The Blonde Bombshells. Cleo would also record All Gone a recurring theme for the 1963 film The Servant. This song was co-penned by Harold Pinter and her long-time husband and collaborator, Sir John Dankworth.

Laine would also record with a seemingly unending roster of music legends. They  include singers, Ray Charles, Mel Tormé, Joe Williams, Tina May and her daughter, Jacqui Dankworth, as well as illustrious instrumentalists, Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, Dudley Moore, John Williams and James Galway, to name but a few. This clearly displays her desire to “share the stage” for the good of the music.

While this astonishing multifaceted stylistic career merits exploring fully and comprehensively I thought it best (for now) to focus on her many recordings of Ellingtonia throughout her 70+ years as a recording artist.

I have chosen twelve Ellington/Strayhorn songs recorded between 1954 and 2000 that might give a reasonable insight into her 46 year period recording and performing Ellingtonia.

1954 I’m Beginning to See the Light from the LP Cleo Laine and Her Orchestra. A nine piece ensemble led and arranged by John Dankworth with the likes of Tommy Whittle, Eddie Blair, Ronnie Ross, Max Harris, et al.

1954. I’ve Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good. Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth an LP with the Johnny Keating Orchestra.

Cleo recorded three versions of the Tizol/Ellington classic Perdido.

1954. Cleo Lane and John Dankworth - LP with the Johnny Keating Orchestra

1968. If We Lived on the Top of a Mountain – LP

1980. The Incomparable Cleo Laine- Live At The Wavendon Festival - LP. Liner notes writer, Alun  Morgan wrote “Perdido,  trombonist Juan Tizol’s most famous contribution to the jazz library, has developed into a finely wrought showcase for the Dankworths. There is a hint of Parker’s Scrapple From the Apple and a general impression of vocal and instrumental ability well beyond the call of duty”.

1957. Mood Indigo. Meet Cleo Laine. This features an inventive Dankworth backing of just 4 horns. Alto, tenor, baritone saxes and trumpet.

There are two recordings of It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing.

1991. Jazz, CD. Recorded in NYC. With guests, Clark Terry, Toots Thielemans, Jay Leonhart, et al.

2000. Jazz at the Globe CD.  This Dankworth “take no prisoners” romp of a treatment has the John and Alec Dankworth Generation Band at the fore. Guest vocalist, Tina May, joins in on scatting vocals as well as all the band members taking a chorus each. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London has seen nothing like it since.

1991. Just a Sittin’ and a Rockin’. From Jazz CD.   Solo by Clark Terry.

2000. Take All My Loves. A lesser known Ellington/Strayhorn offering  from the Ellington 1957 Such Sweet Thunder LP. Also on the Jazz at the Globe CD.

1994. Creole Love Song- from Blue and Sentimental CD. Recorded in NYC with Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, Joe Williams, Mike Renzi, et al.

1995. The Solitude CD was recorded in NYC with the Mercer Ellington Orchestra just one year before Mercer’s untimely passing in 1996. Chock full of Ellington and Strayhorn classics, too numerous to mention. One that stands out for me was Take The A Train, a “flag waver” with   a plenitude of ensemble heroics along with nifty and notey duets with Cleo and Dankworth’s alto sax. The arrangements were all done by Dankworth and fellow Brits, Stan Tracey and Eddie Harvey. An epic recording and collection of Cleo’s finest Ellingtonia, to be sure. Frank Griffith.