An Evening with Dame Cleo Laine and Friends

Cleo Laine is a singer who has done just about everything. She's played everywhere - English dance halls to London's Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie to the Blue Note Cafe. She's been on stage, on Broadway, to London's West End, done opera and the BBC.
She last appeared at a St George's Arts Festival in 2008, and returns this year to join us for the 20th Anniversary of the St. George's Arts Festival.

Dame Cleo Laine is performing on May 18th at St. George's Beckenham - a fantastic opportunity to see this legendary musician.

At this concert, Dame Cleo Laine will be appearing with:

John Horler (Piano)

Alex Dankworth (Bass)

Jim Hart (Drums)

Mark Nightingale (Trombone)

Andy Panayi (Sax, Clarinet, Flute)

"One of the best singers in the world…" Newsweek

Read more about "Cleo Laine" here.

Cleo Laine was born to a Jamaican father and an English mother. She quit school at age 14 and took a variety of jobs while auditioning for singing jobs. Her first break came in 1951, when she was hired as a vocalist for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, a well-known jazz group. At that point she adopted the simpler name “Cleo Laine.” In her seven years dedicated solely to performing with Dankworth’s band, she gained a large following and also began to record. In 1958, the year she married Dankworth, she took her first theatrical role, in Flesh to a Tiger, set in Jamaica. Her success in the part led her to take on a number of other acting roles throughout the years, and she was a regular on the weekly BBC television satire That Was the Week That Was.

In the meantime, she continued to stretch herself as a singer, presenting lieder, classic blues, contemporary pop music, and even works by Arnold Schoenberg in her concerts; she was the only singer to receive Grammy nominations in jazz, popular, and classical categories. Laine was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1979 and was in 1985 the first British singer to win a Grammy Award for best female jazz vocalist (for the album Cleo at Carnegie: The 10th Anniversary Concert). She also performed in plays by Euripides, Shakespeare, and Henrik Ibsen and took part in musical theatre, notably (1988–89) in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

You can read more about Cleo Laine on the official website here.