Cleo Laine
You might have read that Cleo Laine died recently aged 97. She was a fabulous British jazz singer, and I’d like to tell you about how I first heard her sing.
It was in high school. The school I attended was an academic government high school that was over the road from Melbourne University. In my senior years, a small group of boys in my year formed what they called The Entertainment Committee. It was run entirely by them, though I think one of the teachers kept an eye on things. Certainly they were allowed an unusual amount of freedom.
Those boys organized a series of the most amazing events in the school hall. They started by organizing lunchtime concerts for local rock bands — bands who were already well known in Australia. But they didn’t just stick to rock. We had all kinds of concerts — I remember Paco Peña (an internationally known classical guitarist) Alirio Diaz (internationally known flamenco guitarist from Venezuela), an unforgettable performance by the visiting Royal Shakespeare Company, and many more.
Most of these internationally famous performers were scheduled to appear later in the day at Melbourne University, so since we were literally over the road, it probably wasn’t a stretch for the performers to come to us first, and realizing this was a schoolboy initiative, many of them charged us peanuts. Sometimes the concerts were free, other times we all had to pay $1 to cover costs. In retrospect it was an extraordinary achievement by that small group of boys.
One of these unforgettable concerts was by Cleo Laine and the John Dankworth Orchestra. Most of us had never heard of them, but of course we all went to the concert. And of course, they were great.
During one of the first songs, when one of the instrumentalists performed a solo bit, a smattering of the students in the audience (those who were already jazz fans) applauded, and so everyone else did too, even though the piece wasn’t finished. It was a moment of confusion for most of the young audience.
So John Dankworth (who was Cleo’s husband) explained to us how it all worked, how if jazz fans admired a solo piece, they applauded briefly to acknowledge the musician’s skill. After that, of course, there was a lot of applauding going on.
From that moment on, they explained — and demonstrated — all kinds of things about jazz to us, and we lapped it up. It was glorious, and I remember going home than day and telling my parents how wonderful it was. (I think it was one of my musical tastes of which they approved. LOL )
I’ll never forget how much Cleo and John (and possibly the other musicians) seemed to enjoy playing to a young, fresh and enthusiastic audience and it became clear to us that they were enjoying us as much as we were enjoying them.
Cleo’s voice was wonderful — rich and smoky, and there were times when she was playing with a piece, just for fun, or having a mock “duel” with John’s clarinet. You can see a similar piece above. There was no sense that they were “playing down” to a bunch of school kids. They were warm and generous and as you can tell, they had a life-long effect on me, at least. Valé Cleo Laine.
What a wonderful story, Anne! Not to mention a wonderful experience and a wonderful high school. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Mary Jo — thanks. It really was an amazing thing, the concert and the Entertainment Committee. I’ve been talking about it with my little school-friends’ group and we all have vivid memories of it, and Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, and some of the other concerts. I’ll write about the Royal Shakespeare Company visit too, some time in the furture.