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Johnny Dankworth, RIP
Feb. 7th, 2010 03:13 pmGuardian obituary
Sir John Dankworth. His tone was pure. He hired a college student named Dudley Moore who needed some extra money to play piano with his band in the 1950s. He found a girl singer, Cleo Laine, and broadened her range by having the band play a half-tone higher every night. She ended up with one of the widest ranges of any singer: a flexible and powerful instrument. She also ended up with a husband. They'd been married for 52 years.
Their daughter Jacqueline is a singer in her own right with an interesting taste in ballads. Their son Alec is a bassist and composer.
I know Dankworth more through his influence, and it was vast, on British jazz and through his compositions. I love his settings of Shakespeare songs. If you have iTunes check out Cantabile performing "Our Revels Now are Ended."
There are a couple of Youtube videos behind the cut. The first is him with Julian Lloyd Webber playing a an excerpt from a composition of Dankworth's called "Fair Oak Fusion." The second is an early sixties recording of Cleo Laine with Dankworth backing her.
( Read more... )
Sir John Dankworth. His tone was pure. He hired a college student named Dudley Moore who needed some extra money to play piano with his band in the 1950s. He found a girl singer, Cleo Laine, and broadened her range by having the band play a half-tone higher every night. She ended up with one of the widest ranges of any singer: a flexible and powerful instrument. She also ended up with a husband. They'd been married for 52 years.
Their daughter Jacqueline is a singer in her own right with an interesting taste in ballads. Their son Alec is a bassist and composer.
I know Dankworth more through his influence, and it was vast, on British jazz and through his compositions. I love his settings of Shakespeare songs. If you have iTunes check out Cantabile performing "Our Revels Now are Ended."
There are a couple of Youtube videos behind the cut. The first is him with Julian Lloyd Webber playing a an excerpt from a composition of Dankworth's called "Fair Oak Fusion." The second is an early sixties recording of Cleo Laine with Dankworth backing her.
( Read more... )
