October is Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and Black music plays a key role in that history and its celebration. This #BlackMusicSunday, I’m sharing and exploring the music of three award-winning Black British women, from differing genres: Dame Cleo Laine, Joan Armatrading, and Sade.
When I had a conversation with my husband earlier this week about my plans, his assumption was that I would be covering reggae, since it was birthed in the Caribbean reaches of the former British empire. I surprised him when I said, “Nope, I’m starting with jazz.”
Here in the U.S., we engage in a near-constant struggle to increase the teaching of a mostly erased Black American history, amid attacks on those efforts from the White House. Yet we are even less familiar with Black British history.
We’ll be focused on music today, but if you’d like a crash course on Black British history writ large, I recommend this presentation from rapper, poet, and historian Akala.
While jazz aficionados tend to agree that Ella Fitzgerald was and always will be “The First Lady of Song,” British jazz singer Cleo Laine, known worldwide for her scat singing and her three-octave vocal range, should certainly be classed with Fitzgerald as one of the greatest jazz voices of these times.
Black History Month UK 2020 has her biography.
Cleo Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in Southall, Middlesex, to Alexander Campbell, a black Jamaican father, and his wife, Minnie (née Bullock), a white English mother, from Swindon, Wiltshire. Laine’s mother sent her for singing and dancing lessons at an early age. She attended the Board School in Featherstone Road, until recently Featherstone Primary School. She worked as an apprentice hairdresser, librarian and for a pawnbroker, married in 1947 (divorced 1957) to George Langridge, a roof tiler, and had a son, Stuart.
Laine did not take up singing professionally until her mid-twenties. She auditioned successfully for a band led by musician John Dankworth (1927–2010), with which she performed until 1958, when she married Dankworth in secret at Hampstead Register Office. The only witnesses were the couple’s friend, pianist Ken Moule, and his arranger, David Lindup. The couple had two children, Alec and Jacqui, both successful musicians.
[...]
By the late 1990s, Laine became regarded as one of the top jazz vocalists of all time – in the same league as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae. Her concerts sold out across the globe, usually supported by Dankworth with his band, orchestra or smaller group. Her usual band included John Horler (piano), Alec Dankworth (bass), Allan Ganley (drums) and Mark Nightingale (trombone). Laine’s autobiography, Cleo, was published in September 1994 by Simon & Schuster. Her second book, You Can Sing If You Want To, was published by Victor Gollancz in October 1997. In the 1997 New Year’s Honours list, Laine’s membership of the order was elevated to Dame Commander, and she was appointed Dame Cleo Laine DBE (the equivalent of a knighthood for women).
Here’s a 1965 Laine performance with Dankworth’s band, performing Ira and George Gershwin’s “Oh Lady Be Good” as only she can.
Several years after the death of her second husband and musical partner, Dame Cleo was profiled by James Gavin for JazzTimes, in what he called an “Overdue Ovation.”
In the 1970s, when Cleo Laine broke through in the States after years of British stardom, she was all over TV: an exotic hothouse flower with an Afro-like headful of floppy curls, a siren’s saucy glance and the loose-limbed, doll-like moves of a marionette. Her luscious, low contralto resounded like a foghorn, and zoomed three and a half octaves into the ether. Singing “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” the exuberant ’60s show tune, Laine took listeners on a giddy helium balloon ride. She soared circles around the tune, then leapt up to an ear-popping high G; opera’s greatest coloratura soprano, Joan Sutherland, sang up to high F. However did she do it? At 88, Laine-now Dame Cleo-chuckles and responds with tongue-in-cheek hauteur: “It may be hahd for you but it wasn’t hahd for me!”
Enraptured critics proclaimed her the world’s greatest singer. Although Laine became known as Britain’s First Lady of Jazz, her versatility knew few bounds; she sang everything from Shakespeare to Bessie Smith, “Perdido” to Stephen Sondheim. In 1971 she played the biracial Julie in a landmark London revival of Show Boat. Laine recorded Porgy and Bess with Ray Charles, and earned a Grammy nomination for her version of Schoenberg’s atonal song cycle Pierrot Lunaire. “It was outrageous sometimes,” she says. “I could do anything I wanted.”
In England, Laine is treated as a dowager aristocrat of song. Her career is inseparable from that of her husband and conductor, John Dankworth, the father of British jazz. Audiences loved hearing her scat in unison with his clarinet or alto saxophone; every note was written out by Dankworth and executed with dazzling precision. He was a graceful and deft player, but his ultimate instrument was Laine.
Gavin mentions one of my favorite jazz musical standards, “On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)” from the 1965 musical of the same name. I have enjoyed versions by several vocalists, male and female, but my favorite will always be Laine’s.
If you were a kid in the 1970s, or a fan of the Muppets, you may remember her lively performance on The Muppet Show in 1978.
My dad was a Shakespearean scholar as well as a major jazz fan. He introduced me to Laine’s album, Shakespeare and All That Jazz, reviewed here by Jazz History Online.
Laine’s first official recording was of a setting of a Shakespeare text, and she recorded four Shakespeare settings in 1959. However, her 1964 LP “Shakespeare and All That Jazz” was an exceptional album-length tribute to the Bard, and it still stands as one of her finest recordings. In the previous year, Laine’s husband and musical director, John Dankworth, had created a big band album called “What the Dickens” which featured some of Britain’s finest jazz musicians in musical portrayals of Charles Dickens’ most famous characters. For “Shakespeare and All That Jazz”, Dankworth lead a small ensemble, was a principal soloist on alto sax and clarinet, and composed and arranged several of the tracks (On both the Dickens and Shakespeare LPs, another featured soloist is trumpeter Kenny Wheeler). The only CD reissue is a Japanese version on EmArcy; the original Fontana is quite rare, but there are LP reissues on Affinity and Philips (the last re-titled “This is…Cleo Laine”) that are easier to find. Both reissues are of the preferred stereo edition.
The texts cover Shakespeare’s sonnets, comedies (“Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “As You Like It”, “Twelfth Night”, “Love’s Labors Lost” and “Much Ado About Nothing”) and tragedies (“Macbeth” and “Cymbeline”). Four of the musical settings are the same Arthur Young arrangements Laine recorded in 1959, two others are adaptations of movements from the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn suite, “Such Sweet Thunder”, and the remainder are Dankworth originals.
Here’s one of her Shakespeare recordings, showcasing Twelfth Night.
To get a sense of Laine’s range, I’ll close Laine’s section with this concert tribute to songwriter Hoagy Carmichael.
Like Laine, Black British singer and guitar player Joan Armatrading has roots in the Caribbean; specifically St. Kitts.
Joan Armatrading has come a long way since her birth in the West Indies and her upbringing in Birmingham. Born in St Kitts on December 9th 1950 and moving to England when she was seven, Joan took her first musical steps on her mother's piano. Although her father had a guitar it was strictly out of bounds so when Joan saw one for £3 in a pawn shop window she pestered her parents to buy it. Her mother bartered two old prams they no longer used in exchange. Joan soon taught herself to play and began writing her own songs at the age of 14.
Joan Armatrading’s debut album, ‘Whatever's For Us’, released on Cube Records in 1972 and produced by the great Gus Dudgeon, was critically acclaimed and saw Joan voted as best newcomer. In 1974, she signed to A&M world-wide and a whole plethora of classic and memorable songs followed – "Love and Affection", "Down To Zero", "Drop the Pilot", "Me Myself I" to name but a few.
Known as a true craftsman, Joan’s distinctive vocals and consummate musicianship – she has arranged as well as played nearly every instrument herself on the last five albums – have led to widespread and, perhaps most importantly, consistent critical acclaim. Effortlessly eclectic, her sound has ranged from jazz to soul to sophisticated pop, all driven by her passionate guitar. Indeed, she was the first non-jazz artist to play in London's Ronnie Scott's main room. In 2003 Joan released a seminal album, "Lovers Speak". All 14 tracks were self-penned as usual but, with the exception of drums and horns, on this album she played every instrument as well. The CD combined strong upbeat melodies, riffs that stuck in your head and passionate, soulful ballads. It was the result of a long-held desire to make a truly solo album.
I first heard Joan Armatrading’s music while overseeing the programming of the jazz and jazz extensions of the Pacifica radio station in Washington, D.C., WPFW-FM. I went to hear her play, was entranced, and wound up spending the entire evening—late into the night after her show—talking with her. She was probably the most humble and unassuming musician I’ve ever met.
You can see glimpses of her reserved personality in this oh-so-70s music video for “Love and Affection.”
The BBC produced a 2019 documentary about Armatrading, Me, Myself, I.
In this documentary Joan talks about her self-belief and her unique ability to craft songs that have spoken to millions. Known for her reclusiveness, Joan has, for the first time, granted access to her life and music. Joan tells her story from Caribbean émigré to becoming one of the most revered songwriters of our generation.
The film covers Joan’s childhood growing up in Birmingham, and how she began writing songs from a young age. Joan met some of the key people in her life when she joined the rock musical Hair in 1968. She left home to go on tour and forged a musical partnership with songwriter Pam Nestor. Their collaboration led to a major record deal and an opportunity to work with Elton John’s producer, Gus Dudgeon. Her album, Whatever’s for Us, received rave reviews and chimed with the burgeoning songwriting movement on the west coast of America. The album signalled a new energy and freedom taking shape in the 70s in Britain among the black population. Joan was propelled into the musical stratosphere, signing with major American label A&M for over ten years. She created her own genre of songwriting, defying stereotypes and breaking barriers, becoming one of the first black singer-songwriters in Britain.
Unfortunately, the documentary left the BBC website last month.
Here’s hoping it will become available again sometime soon. (Let’s give them a nudge.) There’s a pirated copy with bad sound on YouTube that I won’t link to because it’s a mess. Let’s watch this 1983 concert documentary instead.
On her website, Armatrading talks about her love for writing music.
'I will never retire. Songwriting is in my blood. I’m at my happiest when I’m writing. I started to write songs at the age of 14. Before that I used to write limericks, funny short stories and jokes. My mother bought a piano for the front room because she thought it was a great piece of furniture. As soon as the piano arrived in the house, that’s when I started to write songs.[...]
Music and my songwriting, has given me a lot of pleasure and good fortune. I meet people I would never meet if I was doing something else, I get to travel all over the world and I get invited to interesting events and places, all because of the songs I write. I love all that comes with songwriting and I very much enjoy the many concerts that I have performed in over the years but even if none of these things happened I would still be a songwriter.
I write because I love it.
Like Laine, Armatrading was also honored by the Palace in 2001.
The 50-year-old performer, who grew up in Birmingham, England, became an MB
Singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading was honored yesterday (Oct. 15) at Buckingham Palace in London for her services to music. The 50-year-old performer, who grew up in Birmingham, England, became an MBE, or Member of the Order of British Empire, at a palace ceremony with Prince Charles.
"It was absolutely brilliant -- it is an honor," Armatrading said. "I was particularly pleased to have been given this award by Prince Charles. I just think he is a great guy and he has done such incredible work with the Prince's Trust [charitable organization]."
Her last album, released in 2018, was Not Too Far Away.
Armatrading continues to write, and as she said above, she won’t retire.
Unlike the two sisters above, Sade’s Black roots are from Nigeria.
Helen Folasade Adu was born in Ibadan, Nigeria. Her father was Nigerian, a university teacher of economics; her mother was an English nurse. The couple met in London while he was studying at the LSE and they moved to Nigeria shortly after getting married. When their daughter was born, nobody locally called her by her English name, and a shortened version of Folasade stuck. Then, when she was four, her parents separated, and her mother brought Sade and her elder brother back to England, where they initially lived with their grandparents just outside Colchester, Essex.
Sade grew up listening to American soul music, particularly the wave led in the 1970’s by artists such as Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, and Bill Withers. As a teenager, she saw the Jackson 5 at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London where she worked behind the bar at weekends. “I was more fascinated by the audience than by anything that was going on on the stage. They’d attracted kids, mothers with children, old people, white, black. I was really moved. That’s the audience I’ve always aimed for”.”[...]
At the time of the first album, Diamond Life, in 1984, Sade’s actual life was anything but diamond-like. She was living in a converted fire station in Finsbury Park, North London, with her then boyfriend, the style journalist Robert Elms. There was no heating, which meant that she had to get dressed in bed. The loo, which used to ice over in winter, was on the fire escape. The bath was in the kitchen: “We were freezing, basically”. For the remainder of the 1980’s, as the first three albums sold by the million around the world, Sade toured more or less constantly. For her this remains a point of principle. “If you just do TV or video then you become a tool of the record industry. All you’re doing is selling a product. It’s when I get on stage with the band and we play that I know that people love the music. I can feel it. Sometimes I yearn to be on the road. The feeling overwhelms me”.
There is Sade the performer, who is also known as Sade Adu, and Sade the band, which evolved out of an earlier group she was a part of called Pride. When she was offered a lucrative recording contract she turned it down, and only accepted when she could bring Pride members with her.
Like Laine and Armatrading, Sade has accrued royal honors.
Sade has been credited as one of the most successful British female artists in history, and is often recognised as an influence on contemporary music. Her services to music were also recognised with an award of the Officer of the Order of the British Empire chivalry honour in 2002, and later the rank of the Commander of the same order in 2017.
I first heard Sade on the radio in 1985 when the single “Smooth Operator” was released in the U.S., from the album Diamond Life.
I admit that though I enjoyed listening to the song, I did not go out and buy a Sade album until Love Deluxe in 1992, which featured a song which still haunts and fascinates me till this day: “Pearls.”
The lyrics evoke so many images for me, as a woman, as a Black woman, and as a survivor.
There is a woman in Somalia
Scraping for pearls on the roadside
There’s a force stronger than nature
Keeps her will alive
This is how she’s dying
She’s dying to survive
Don’t know what she’s made of
I would like to be that brave
She cries to the heaven above
There is a stone in my heart
She lives a life she didn’t choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes
Hurts like brand-new shoes
1992’s “Feel No Pain” is one of her most openly political tunes, as music reviewer Frank Guan wrote for Vulture.
All Sade songs are socially engaged at some level, but of the ones that directly reference politics, this is one of the best. Instead of telling the story of a black family trapped by layoffs, poverty, unemployment, and hatred from the third-person, Sade locates herself within its daughter as a first-person narrator. Her intimation that a society that refuses to support its least fortunate members will end in ruin for all doesn’t come off as a sermon, but an experience deeply lived. The supporting cast turns in one of its best performances, evoking a spirit at once buoyant, concerned, and trapped.
Though Sade wrote “Immigrant” in 2000, it resonates today, and not just for Black immigrants to the United Kingdom.
Coming from where he did
He was turned away from every door like Joseph
To even the toughest among us
That would be too much
He didn’t know what it was to be black
‘Till they gave him his change
But didn’t want to touch his hand
To even the toughest among us
That would be too much
Isn’t it just enough
How hard it is to live
Isn’t it hard enough
Just to make it through a day
The secret of their fear and their suspicion
Standing there looking like an angel
In his brown shoes, his short suit
His white shirt and his cuffs a little frayed
Coming from where he did
He was such a dignified child
To even the toughest among us
That would be too much
Because Sade eschews being controlled by the demands of the music industry, there are often very long stretches between new releases from Sade and the band.
February 2010: Soldier of Love is released, the sixth studio album the band Sade have released during their 25 year career, and the first since Lovers Rock in 2000. For Sade herself, as the lynchpin of the group’s song writing effort, it’s a simple matter of integrity and authenticity: “I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I’m not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something. Sade is not a brand.”
I saw this on Twitter last week.
I didn’t buy Sade’s first album, but I might just correct that by grabbing that vinyl boxset.
Black History Month is also being celebrated in Ireland and the Netherlands in the month of October, so if you have some Black music to share from those countries, please post it to the comments.
We’ve got less than a month to go before we make some Black history of our own, so help get out the vote for Biden-Harris.
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