Voice
Laine is famed for not only her interpretative style, but also her four-octave range and vocal adaptability. As well as hitting deep soulful notes, Laine's thrilling scatting and crystalline top notes have become her signature. Though her natural range is that of a contralto she is able to produce a "G above high C". Derek Jewel of the Sunday Times dubbed her "quite simply the best singer in the world."
The longevity of Laine's voice has also been noted by, amongst others, her husband. At the age of 80 her vocals, he noted during an interview, were almost unchanged from decades earlier.
Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne were all influences on Laine when she was young.
Read more about this topic: Cleo Laine
Famous quotes containing the word voice:
“There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at
rest.
There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the
oppressor.”
—Bible: Hebrew Job (l. III, 17–18)
“The attention of those who frequent the camp-meetings at Eastham is said to be divided between the preaching of the Methodists and the preaching of the billows on the back side of the Cape, for they all stream over here in the course of their stay. I trust that in this case the loudest voice carries it. With what effect may we suppose the ocean to say, “My hearers!” to the multitude on the bank. On that side some John N. Maffit; on this, the Reverend Poluphloisboios Thalassa.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We live technologically, with man as the master of nature, man as the engineer, and let anyone who raises his voice against it stop using bridges not built by nature.... No electric light bulbs, no engines, no atomic energy, no calculating machines, no anaesthetics—back to the jungle.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)