Cleo Laine is DEAD to me

DAME Cleo Laine

Susan Dey says the number of deaths this week has gotten completely out of hand.

So, no comment.

Damn! They're dropping like flies this week. Anyway, congrats to them all. Home at last!

What a voice she had! RIP Dame Cleo.

My favorite performance by her and Johnny Dankworth!

discography

Show Boat

American here. This is the only thing I know her for:

A once in a century voice! Thankfully, I saw her once in concert. Sublime

I saw her in concert three times and she was fabulous. Dame Cleo was well-known to, and appreciated by, American jazz connoisseurs.

RIP

Thread from May with some nice posts.

I met her at the mirror in the ladies’ washroom at the Savoy during London Jazz Fest in the early 2000s. She complimented my shoes.

I didn’t know who she was. My Brit friend was with me and told me who it was when she left the washroom.

^^ describe said shoes

Oh wow. 97! Dame Cleo was a classy and gifted performing artist and a life well lived.

My late parents had an album of hers from the early 70s, titled Portrait. Unique image on the cover, she was wrapped in a greenish caftan type thing and posing beside a big old green moss covered tree.

BEAUTIFUL mezzosopranen voice

Delightful on Sesame Street too

Cleo laine! Bea Arthur! Batty buckley!

My favorite Cleo Laine. There may be better recordings, but this was one of her standards.

As the Witch in the first national tour of INTO THE WOODS

Has Anna Maria Alberghetti commented yet?

[quote]Has Anna Maria Alberghetti commented yet?

She's still getting in the taxi.

So sad

R14...

CBS This Morning / 1990

R23, ding DING

Her Sondheim album is perfection. It's a shame she never played Broadway in one of his productions, she would have been first rate.

Call me a philistine if you must, but I had never heard of her until I was listening to NPR the other day and they covered her death. I've since gone down a rabbit hole, and HOLY SHIT! I'm a new fan for sure. RIP.

R27 "You're a philistine"

What a unique voice she had. Once in a century

Dame Cleo's "Send In The Clowns" is the DEFINITIVE pop recording of that composition. I love Sarah Vietnam's virtuoso live performance but it definitely overpowers the song. Streisand's i is lovely but perfunctory. Laine gets right to the pathos without being overwrought or maudlin -- very stiff-upper-lip. She recorded it twice, first in 1974 on "A Beautiful Thing" and again in 1988 on "Cleo Sings Sondheim.". Both are superb.

Sarah Vietnam = Sarah Vaughan

My favorite album and song.

I had the great pleasure of attending a Cleo Laine/John Dankworth concert in, believe it or not, Manhattan, Kansas -WOW, WADDA’ a voice, wut style, WADDA’ DAME !

[quote]R31 Sarah Vietnam = Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vietnam was the poor man’s Tokyo Rose.

[quote] Sarah Vietnam was the poor man’s Tokyo Rose.

Indeed but neither could touch the hem of Sukey Tawdry's sequined gown.

I met her once after seeing her perform. Pre-cell times. Dankworth had a meeting and her car appeared to have gotten her pickup time wrong, and she was standing alone in front of the theater. It was dark and a friend and I waited with her. She didn't mind the delay, and was charming, direct, asked questions, remembered our names. When the car came she asked if she could drop us anywhere and we thanked her but had a car. She blew a kiss.

Cleo laine had the style

hey Kansas boy, approx what year was Cleo Laine in Manhattan, KS? R33

Ohhhh…honestly can’t remember , but will check with my friend who told me about it - many years ago …sometime in the 90’s I think -both Cleo and John seemed to be at the top of their game.

did they perform as a duo? R39

or with a backup band?