There are few places that Dame Cleo Laine hasn’t sung in. From English dance halls to London’s Royal Albert Hall, via the Newport Festival and Carnegie Hall to the Blue Note Café, she’s played them all. In her long and varied career she’s starred on Broadway and the West End, her incredible range, scat capabilities and vocal ability leading some to call her, and without exaggeration, ’the best singer in the world’.
On Sunday, she brings her band of top musicians to the Radlett Centre to sing a full programme of jazz standards and favourites.
“We do what we know,“ she says about the songs she’ll be singing on the night. “All my repertoire is favourites. Absolutely, I don’t sing anything I don’t like.“
It’s this self-imposed quality control that has helped make her the enduring name she remains today.
“I have never sung songs that I would become tired of,“ she says. “There are some I’ve performed for years and years but I’m still not sick of them. Nope.
“From the start these songs were well written, the lyrics were generally good, and if they weren’t absolutely out of this world they were good for the music supporting them.“
She is a true great and a musical treasure who impressed the likes of Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, with a voice you’ll never forget.
An Evening with Cleo Laine and Friends is at The Radlett Centre on February 3 at 7.30pm. Details: 01923 859291
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