Search - Cleo Laine :: Shakespeare: And All That Jazz

Shakespeare has the inner beat in Cleo's hands

M. Cureton | Woodstock, MD United States | 03/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ahhh.....absolutely sublime jazzy Shakespeare- without a doubt the Bard himself would love these arrangements were he around today. Dame Cleo delivers - perfect phrasing, the indescribably warm dulcet tones only she can elicit, not to mention her stunning range. In essence....an elegant jazzy treat!"

ONE OF THE GREATEST RECORDINGS OF ALL TIME

J. Carter Joseph | ATLANTA, GA | 11/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Shakespeare...and all that Jazz" needs to be re-issued on CD as soon as possible. I have it on LP, and Dame Cleo later re-recorded it on a CD entitled "Wordsongs", featuring in addition other poems from other authors, again accompanied by husband/collaborator John Dankworth. Although the recording is superb, the original is still the greatest.



This is quite simply not only one of the greatest jazz recordings of them all, it is one of the greatest recordings of all time, right up there with the Maria Callas/Guiseppe diStefano "Tosca".



If you have it, you are lucky indeed. A perfect marriage of words to music, melody and jazz invention. Singing and playing ot the very highest caliber. This recording has greatly improved my life.



I was lucky enough to have seen Cleo Laine twice, once in the early 80's, when she made a splash in the US, and five years ago. Both were concerts that rank among the very greatest evenings I have ever had. Dame Cleo and Sir John had lost none of their talent or musicianship. She divulged to us in that last concert that this recording had been issued to most high-school students in England in the 1990s, as an introduction to Shakespeare. When she asked a student what he had thought of the work, he answered, "Well...I liked YOU."



Please, EMI,re-issue this treasure. The world needs it.



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