Noted for her distinctive, scat singing style, her four octave range and vocal
versatility, Cleo Laine is probably Britain's most successful jazz singer of all
time. Feted by royalty and respected and admired right across the music
fraternity, her fame grew out of humble beginnings near London, where she was
raised by her mother, a farmer's daughter, and her father, a Jamaican labourer
who liked to moonlight as a busker. She took singing and dancing lessons as a
child before leaving school to take various jobs as apprentice hairdresser,
hat-trimmer, librarian and pawnbroker. She ...