Jacqui Dankworth

Jazz vocalist Jacqui Dankworth is a versatile figure who has also been active in classical music, folk, blues, soul, and other genres. She is also a songwriter and had a successful career as an actress in her youth. Jacqueline Caryl Dankworth was born on February 5, 1963, in Northampton in England's East Midlands. Her parents were jazz singer Cleo Laine and her husband and music director, John Dankworth, a composer, clarinetist, and saxophonist. After attending St. Christopher School in the Hertfordshire region, she went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she graduated and was later named a fellow. She was active first as an actress, performing with such groups as the Royal National Theatre. She also landed roles in musicals, including that of Cinderella in the London premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. She was seen in the Duke Ellington musical Sophisticated Ladies and in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. These singing experiences led Dankworth to set her sights on a career as a vocalist. She made several appearances on albums by others, including vibraphonist Anthony Kerr's First Cry (1994) and pianist James Pearson's For All We Know (2000). In 2001, Dankworth released her first solo album, As the Sun Shines Down on Me, on the Candid label. That album caught the attention of BBC radio producer Michael Parkinson, and Dankworth went on to regular performances on the BBC Radio 2 network. In 2003, she was heard on the Devotion album of saxophonist Courtney Pine and performed with him at the London Jazz Festival. She released several more albums on Candid and then moved to Audacious for 2009's Back to You and to Specific Jazz for 2011's It Happens Quietly. Dankworth's collaborators are a distinguished group that includes nostalgia pianist Marvin Hamlisch, Memphis blues keyboardist Charlie Wood (who became Dankworth's husband), and jazz pianist Chick Corea. Many of her projects were influenced by or moved into the realm of classical music. She has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Ireland. In 2019, Dankworth was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). She joined The Brodsky Quartet on the 2022 album Rocking Horse Road, released on the classical-oriented Chandos label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi