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:
“Cotton Mather died when I was a boy. The books
He read, all day, all night and all the nights,
Had got him nowhere. There was always the doubt,
That made him preach the louder, long for a church
In which his voice would roll its cadences,
After the sermon, to quiet that mouse in the wall.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man,—you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind,—I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I wish I had the voice of Homer
To sing of rectal carcinoma.”
—J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)