This week we celebrate the birthday of: Cleo Laine

Starting close to home, we celebrate Cleo Laine, DBE who celebrates her 93rd birthday this week on 28 October 1927.

Born Clementine Dinah Bullock, Cleo is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories. As many of us living in and around Milton Keynes know, she and her late husband Sir John Dankworth founded the Stables theatre in 1970 in what was the old stables block in the grounds of their home in Wavendon which is still going strong.

Still in the top best-selling albums is Cleo’s Shakespeare and All That Jazz (Fontana, 1964). A natural contralto, she is able to produce a G above high C, giving her an overall compass of well over three octaves.

Happy birthday Cleo!