Cleo Laine Biography, Real Name, Age, Height and Weight

Cleo Laine is a singer who has done just about everything. Cleo Laine’s real name is Clementine Dinah Bullock. 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. Cleo Laine was born on 28 October 1927. As mentioned in the Cleo Laine Biography table Cleo Laine is 95 years old. Cleo Laine was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England.

Name	Cleo Laine
Real Name	Clementine Dinah Bullock
Date of Birth	28 October 1927
Age	95
Birthplace	Uxbridge, Middlesex, England
Height	1.63 m
Weight

EARLY CAREER

She got the job, and rose quickly to prominence in Britain. Her acclaimed recording of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” was one of the first ever made of the song, and such performances quickly brought her to the top of British jazz popularity polls. (Cleo also at this time enjoyed a celebrated career in the popular music world, as well as appearing frequently as an actress, but her love of jazz and the inherent jazz dialect of her style have never stayed far from the surface for long.)

Cleo married John Dankworth in 1958, and accompanied her husband to the United States when he toured there the following year. Even thought she was not part of the musical package (merely vacationing) she did in fact sing a set at the Dankworth band’s appearance at Birdland. In the audience was Ella Fitzgerald, which began a lasting friendship between the two singers, typified when over twenty years later Ella sent Cleo a bouquet of roses on the occasion of Cleo’s first jazz “Grammy” victory. “Congratulations, gal” said the card “- it’s about time!”

But after that first night in Birdland, Cleo’s singing career in the States went on hold while she developed her craft in Britain and Europe, continuing to record prolifically. Meanwhile her reputation – and her recordings – crossed the Atlantic in ever-increasing quantity. Her 1964 album “Shakespeare and All That Jazz” received a five-star review in Down Beat magazine and her “Live at the London Palladium” album with Dankworth was amongst many others acclaimed by critics. Around this time, the London Times unequivocally pronounced her “the best singer in the world”, a title Cleo herself has always modestly disclaimed.

In 1972 Cleo’s first New York concert drew enthusiastic reviews. “The British … have been hiding one of their national treasures” exclaimed John Wilson in The New York Times. The first of many appearances at Carnegie Hall followed in 1973. Another in the following year was recorded and the resulting album “Live at Carnegie Hall” became the first of several “Grammy” nominations for Cleo.

Since those early trans-Atlantic days Cleo Laine has appeared repeatedly in almost every major city in the United States. She has also made frequent world-wide tours taking in Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Iceland, Israel and many European countries.

Cleo’s records continue to be distributed worldwide. Her 1990 “Woman to Woman” album merited “five stars out of a possible four” according to the US magazine Jazz Times. The album “Jazz” reached number five in the US jazz radio play charts, and “Nothing without You”, a duet compilation with Mel Tormé, reached the Billboard Top Ten in 1992, remaining in the charts for several months.

Cleo Laine’s continued activity in the world of jazz performance, and the quality and depth which those performances continue to show, make her a strong contender indeed for the world title of “a first lady of jazz”.

DISCOGRAPHY

• 1950-52 – Get Happy ESQ317 Reissued in 1985-6 (3 tracks)
• 1955 – Cleo Sings British (10″) – Esquire
• 1957 – Meet Cleo Laine –
• 1957 – In Retrospect – MGM
• 1957 – She’s the Tops – MGM 2354026
• 1959 – Valmouth (original cast) – Pye
• 1961 – Jazz Date (with Tubby Hayes) – Wing
• 1961 – Spotlight on Cleo –
• 1962 – All About Me – Fontana
• 196? – Cleo Laine Jazz Master Series – DRG Records MRS 502
• 1963 – Cindy-Ella (orig cast of 1962 Xmas production) – Decca
• 1963 – Beyond the Blues (American Negro Poetry) – Argo
• 1964 – Shakespeare and All that Jazz – Fontana
• 1964 – This is Cleo Laine – Shakespeare and All That Jazz – Philips
• 1966 – Woman Talk – Fontana
• 1967 – Facade (with Annie Ross) British reissue: Philips – Fontana
• 1968 – If We Lived on Top of a Mountain – Fontana
• 1968 – Soliloquy – Fontana
• 1969 – The Idol (Dankworth soundtrack w/ 2 Cleo vocals) – Fontana
• 1969 – The Unbelieveable Miss Cleo Laine – Fontana
• 1971 – Portrait – Philips
• 1972 – An Evening with Cleo Laine and the John Dankworth Quartet – Philips, Sepia
• 1972 – Feel the Warm – Philips
• 1972 – Showboat (single LP) – EMI-Columbia
• 1972 – Showboat (double LP) – EMI/Stanyan
• 1972 – This is Cleo Laine – EMI
• 1973 – I Am A Song – RCA
• 1973 – Day by Day – Stanyan
• 1974 – Live at Carnegie Hall – RCA
• 1974 – Close-Up – RCA
• 1974 – Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg) Ives Songs – RCA
• 1974 – A Beautiful Thing (with James Galway) – RCA
• 1974 – Easy Living (anthology of Fontana tracks) – RCA
• 1974 – Spotlight on Cleo Laine (double LP) – Philips
• 1974 – Cleo’s Choice – Pye
• 1975 – Cleo’s Choice (abridged issue on Quintessence Jazz) – Quintessence
• 1975 – The Unbelievable Miss Cleo Laine – Contour 6870675
• 1975 – Born on a Friday – RCA
• 1976 – Close-Up (re-issue?) – Victor
• 1976 – Live at the Wavendon Festival – BBC (Black Lion)
• 1976 – Porgy & Bess (with Ray Charles) – London
• 1976 – Return to Carnegie – RCA
• 1976 – Best Friends (with John Williams) – RCA
• 1976 – Leonard Feather’s Encyclopedia of Jazz in the ’70’s – RCA
• 1977 – Cleo (20 Famous Show Hits) – Arcade
• 1977 – The Sly Cormorant (read by Cleo and Brian Patten) – Argo (Decca)
• 19?? – Romantic Cleo – RCA 42750
• 1978 – Showbiz Personalities of 1977 – 9279304
• 1978 – The Early Years – Pye GH653
• 1978 – Gonna Get Through – RCA
• 1978 – A Lover & His Lass – Esquire Treasure
• 1978 – Wordsongs (double LP) – RCA
• 1979 – One More Day – DRG
• 1979 – The Cleo Laine Collection (double LP) – RCA
• 1980 – Cleo’s Choice (re-issue?) – Pickwick
• 1980 – Colette (original cast) – Sepia
• 1980 -Sometimes When We Touch (with James Galway) – RCA
• 1980 – The Incomparable – Black Lion BLM51006
• 1981 – One More Day – Sepia
• 1982 – Smilin’ Through (with Dudley Moore) – CBS
• 1983 – Platinum Collection (double LP) – Magenta
• 1983 – Off the Record – WEA Sierra GFE DD1003
• 1984 – Let the Music Take You (w/ John Williams) – CBS
• 1985 – Cleo at Carnegie – the 10th Anniversary Concert – RCA
• 1985 – That Old Feeling – CBS
• 1985 – “Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra,
• 1985 – The John Dankworth 7 – featuring Cleo Laine” – EMI
• 1986 – Wordsongs – Westminster
• 1986 – The Mystery of Edwin Drood – Philips
• 1986 – Unforgettable – 16 Golden Classics – Castle
• 1986 – Cleo Laine – The Essential Collection – Sierra
• 1987 – Unforgettable – PRT
• 1987 – Classic Gershwin (1 track on this CD — Embraceable You) – CBS
• 1988 – Cleo Laine Sings Sondheim  – RCA
• 1988 – Showboat (re-issue of 1972 cast album) – EMI/Stanyan
• 1988 – Cleo Laine & John Dankworth – Shakespeare and All That Jazz – Affinity
• 1989 – Woman to Woman – RCA
• 1989 – Jazz  – RCA
• 1989 – Portrait of a Song Stylist – Harmony
• 1991 – Young At Heart – Castle ATJCD 5959
• 1991 – Spotlight on Cleo Laine – Phonogram 848129.2
• 1991 – Pachebel’s Greatest Hits (1 track) – RCA
• 1992 – Nothing Without You (with Mel Torme) – Concord
• 1993 – On the Town (1 track)
• 1994 – I Am a Song – RCA
• 1994 – Blue and Sentimental – RCA
• 1995 – Solitude – RCA
• 1996 – Cleo’s Choice – Re-issues of Nixa from 1956-58 – RPM
• 1997 – The Very Best of Cleo Laine – RCA
• 1997 – Mad About the Boy – Abracadabra
• 1998 – Ridin’ High (Early Sessions) – Koch
• 1998 – Trav’lin’ Light: The Johnny Mercer Songbook (1 track) – Verve
• 1998 – Let’s Be Frank (1 track) – MCA
• 1998 – The Collection – Spectrum Music
• 1999 – Sondheim Tonight – Live From the Barbican (1 track) – Jay
• 1999 – The Best of Cleo Laine – Redial
• 1999 – The Silver Anniversary Concert (Carnegie Hall, Limited Edition) – Sepia
• 1999 – Christmas at the Stables
• 2001 – Quintessential Cleo – Gold Label
• 2001 – Live in Manhattan – Gold Label
• 2001 – Cleo At Her Finest – Re-issues from 70’s Metro
• 2002 – Quality Time – Universal/Absolute
• 2003 – Loesser Genius – Qnote
• 2005 – Cleo at her finest – Re-issues from 70’s – Metro
• 2006 – London Pride – Title song only
• 2007 – Spread a Little Happiness, Earliest Recordings and Broadcasts 1949-55 – Avid
• 2007 – I Hear Music, 4CD set celebrating 80th Birthdays – Qnote
• 2008 – Three Early L.P’s & More – Avid
• 2009 – Jazz Matters – Qnote