Acclaimed British vocalist at Jazz Alley in Seattle for four nights

Is there another art form in which longevity offers as many creative dividends as jazz? While the gruesome pantheon of players cut down in their prime dominates the music's mythos, consider the honor roll of remarkably productive autumnal improvisers. Among tenor saxophonists alone, the octogenarian club includes James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Red Holloway, Benny Golson, Von Freeman, Sam Rivers, Frank Foster and Frank Wess. Jazz singers, however, rarely reach their later years with voice intact, which is what makes Cleo Laine's resilient pipes and enduring creative drive such a miraculous phenomenon. At 81, the British vocalist still possesses one of the most glorious instruments on the scene, and she hasn't lost a step on the bandstand (though she's recently recovered from a broken leg sustained last December).

Laine opens a four-night run at Jazz Alley on Thursday with her longtime West Coast band featuring pianist Larry Dunlap, bassist Seward McCain, drummer Jim Zimmerman and trombonist Ed Neumeister. "As she says, the voice is just a muscle and you have to keep using it and keep it in shape," says Dunlap, Laine's accompanist since the late 1970s. "Of course, she's more gifted than most people from the start. She can still hit the high notes, but doesn't want to do it all the time. To see somebody of that age still doing that adds an edge to a performance. Are they going to be able to do it? And when they can, it's really great, better than when she was 40."

If there's one common thread running through the lives of senior jazz musicians, it's a successful marriage, and Laine is no different. Her creative partnership with her husband, saxophonist/arranger John Dankworth, amounts to one of jazz's most prolific and enduring partnerships. From Ellington and Schoenberg to Shakespeare and Weill, the couple have gracefully traversed a breathtaking array of material, never shying away from a new musical challenge. "The music has really kept us together," says Laine, noting that they celebrated their 50th anniversary last year. "He does the writing, and he keeps it fresh, both for our careers and for himself. He can't keep on playing the same old stuff. He's got to up his ante all the time, which means I have to keep upping mine, too. It's competition in a way, even at our age."

Laine's lustrous voice, perfect pitch and willingness to stretch as a singer and actor have defined her far-flung career. What's most fascinating is how she's moved back and forth between pop and jazz settings and edgy theatrical and classical projects, often blurring the lines between idioms. Is there another singer whose collaborations easily encompass classical stars like flutist James Galway and guitarist John Williams, and jazz greats Mel Tormé, Clark Terry and Joe Williams? In 1974, Laine recorded an acclaimed version of Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire," then earned a Best Female Pop Vocalist Grammy nomination the following year for her album "Live at Carnegie Hall." The next year she joined Ray Charles on a classic, soul-drenched recording of "Porgy and Bess" that unleashed the songs from the original light opera setting. Talk about upping the ante.

"Right from the get go, we were very eclectic, and that's helped a great deal," Laine says. "Darting around from piece to piece at the beginning expanded my horizons. John's horizons were expanded by writing for film. We were going on different paths, and then our paths met again. John is no young buck anymore, but he writes like a young buck, and he's written some phenomenal things for me recently."
By Andrew Gilbert
Special to The Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2009759186_cleo28.html