Cyril Smith, the postwar pianist who played with one hand
Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick became a piano-playing couple in 1941. They performed at the Proms and toured widely. They used all four hands, sometimes on one piano, sometimes on two. They were touring the Soviet Union in 1956 when Cyril had a stroke that paralysed his left arm. Just as Wittgenstein had experienced, Smith and Sellick had music written or arranged for them for the rest of their careers.
How do I know this? They came to play at the University of Liverpool in 1962 and I was the student given the task of looking after them and was their page-turner.Graham MyttonDorking, Surrey
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Singer Cleo Laine, regarded as Britain's greatest jazz voice, dies at 97
Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain 's greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97. The Stables, a charity and venue Laine founded with her late jazz musician husband John Dankworth, said Friday it was 'greatly saddened' by the news that 'one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away." Monica Ferguson, artistic director of The Stables, said Laine "will be greatly missed, but her unique talent will always be remembered.' Laine's career spanned the Atlantic and crossed genres: She sang the songs of Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg and Robert Schumann; she acted on stage and on film, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde." Laine's life and art were intimately bound up with band leader Dankworth, who gave her a job and her stage name in 1951, and married her seven years later. Both were still performing after their 80th birthdays. Dankworth died in 2010 at 82. In 1997, Laine became the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight. "It is British jazz that should have received the accolade for its service to me," she said when the honor was announced. "It has given me a wonderful life, a successful career and an opportunity to travel the globe doing what I love to do." Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927. Her father, Alexander Campbell, was a Jamaican who loved opera and earned money during the Depression as a street singer. Despite hard times, her British mother, Minnie, made sure that her daughter had piano, voice and dance lessons. She began performing at local events at age 3, and at age 12 she got a role as a movie extra in "The Thief of Bagdad." Leaving school at 14, Laine went to work as a hairdresser and faced repeated rejection in her efforts to get a job as a singer. A decade later, in 1951, she tried out for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, and succeeded. "Clementina Campbell" was judged too long for a marquee, so she became Cleo Laine. "John said that when he heard me, I didn't sound like anyone else who was singing at the time," Laine once said. "I guess the reason I didn't get the other jobs is that they were looking for a singer who did sound like somebody else." Laine had a remarkable range, from tenor to contralto, and a sound often described as "smoky." Dankworth, in an interview with the Irish Independent, recalled Laine's audition. "They were all sitting there with stony faces, so I asked the Scottish trumpet player Jimmy Deuchar, who was looking very glum and was the hardest nut of all, whether he thought she had something. 'Something?' he said, 'She's got everything!'" Offered 6 pounds a week, Laine demanded — and got — 7 pounds. "They used to call me 'Scruff', although I don't think I was scruffy. It was just that having come from the sticks, I didn't know how to put things together as well as the other singers of the day," she told the Irish Independent. "And anyway, I didn't have the money, because they weren't paying me enough." Recognition came swiftly. Laine was runner-up in Melody Maker's "girl singer" category in 1952, and topped the list in 1956 and 1957. She married Dankworth — and quit his band — in 1958, a year after her divorce from her first husband, George Langridge. As Dankworth's band prospered, Laine began to feel underused. "I thought, no, I'm not going to just sit on the band and be a singer of songs every now and again when he fancied it. So it was then that I decided I wasn't going to stay with the band and I was going to go off and try to do something solo-wise," she said in a BBC documentary. "When I said I was leaving, he said, 'Will you marry me?' That was a good ploy, wasn't it, huh?" They were married on March 18, 1958. A son, Alec, was born in 1960, and daughter Jacqueline followed in 1963. Despite her happy marriage, Laine forged a career independent of Dankworth. "Whenever anybody starts putting a label on me, I say, 'Oh, no you don't,' and I go and do something different," Laine told The Associated Press in 1985 when she was appearing on stage in New York in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Her stage career began in 1958 when she was invited to join the cast of a West Indian play, "Flesh to a Tiger," at the Royal Court Theatre, and was surprised to find herself in the lead role. She won a Moscow Arts Theatre Award for her performance. "Valmouth" followed in 1959, "The Seven Deadly Sins" in 1961, "The Trojan Women" in 1966 and "Hedda Gabler" in 1970. The role of Julie in Jerome Kern's "Show Boat" in 1971 provided Laine with a show-stopping song, "Bill." Laine began winning a following in the United States in 1972 with a concert at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. It wasn't well-attended, but The New York Times gave her a glowing review. The following year, she and Dankworth drew a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall, launching a series of popular appearances. "Cleo at Carnegie" won a Grammy award in 1986, the same year she was a Tony nominee for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." A reviewer for Variety in 2002 found her voice going strong: "a dark, creamy voice, remarkable range and control from bottomless contralto to a sweet clear soprano. Her perfect pitch and phrasing is always framed with musical imagination and good taste." Perhaps Laine's most difficult performance of all was on Feb. 6, 2010, at a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the concert venue she and Dankworth had founded at their home, during which Laine and both of her children performed. "I'm terribly sorry that Sir John can't be here today," Laine told the crowd at the end of the show. 'But earlier on my husband died in hospital.' Laine said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 that the secret of her longevity was that "I was never a complete belter." "There was always a protective side in me, and an inner voice always said, 'Don't do that — it's not good for you and your voice.'" Laine is survived by her son and daughter. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed. AP journalist Robert Barr, the principal writer of the obituary, died in 2018.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Michael Harper obituary
My husband, Michael Harper, who has died aged 61 after health problems including sarcoidosis and a collapsed lung, was an accomplished countertenor with an exceptionally beautiful voice. After a stage career in Europe and Asia, in 2019 he became professor of singing at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester. Michael was born in Petersburg, Virginia, the son of Ruth (nee Williams) and Robert Harper, who separated when he was a child. Michael was brought up by his mother, a hospital care assistant, and he studied at Virginia Commonwealth University before completing postgraduate and doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In 1994 he moved to Britain, partly motivated by its reputation for a varied music scene, and studied at the Mayer-Lismann Opera Centre. It was a perfect destination for a young countertenor to grow and hone his craft, and his roles went on to include the Waiter in The Waiter's Revenge (Jigsaw Music Theatre, London, 1998); Flavio in Handel's opera of the same name for Neue Opernbühne Berlin (2001); and the Angel in Jonathan Dove's Tobias and the Angel with Highbury Opera Theatre at the Union Chapel, London, in 2012. Michael became involved in many other areas of the music world, working extensively as a vocal coach and teacher. He served as a trustee for the Buxton International festival, was a patron of the National Opera Studio's Diverse Voices programme to widen participation in opera, and featured in the 2022 Sky Arts television series Anyone Can Sing. Michael lent his talent and intellect to organisations including British Youth Opera, Den Norske Opera in Norway, the Pegasus Opera Company, English National Opera, the Royal Opera Studio and the WaterAid charity. As a teacher, he mentored and inspired students of all ages with an exacting and detailed approach coupled with great kindness. He was dedicated to promoting diversity in opera performance, and created the Williams-Howard prize in 2021 to promote the study and performance of arts songs by African-heritage composers. The prize – named after his grandfather, Chester Ambrose Williams, and his teacher, Helen Palmer Howard – was the culmination of his life's work. He worked to establish a repository of these songs in the RNCM library and fundraised to support the prize in perpetuity. Michael managed to retain the courtesy and bearing of an American southern gentleman, while becoming entirely and proudly British, combining a fierce intellect and erudition, strongly expressed political opinions and a great sense of fun. Above all he had an extraordinary ability to make connections with people in all parts of his life. People who met Michael found out quickly that he took a genuine and enduring interest in them and had a remarkable capacity to create friendships wherever he went. His happiest times were spent gardening, cooking and spending time at our home in Brittany. He is survived by me, his life partner since 1996 (we married in 2007), two brothers, Larry and Pierre, and a sister, Felicia.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
I got into hot water and jazz at Bath's 1960s Roman Rendezvous
Amanda Hart, director of archaeology at the Roman baths in Bath, need not go back to Seneca to find evidence of music at the baths (Singing in the bath: summer gigs bring noise back to Bath's Roman attraction, 20 July). In 1963, as part of the Bath festival, a Roman Rendezvous was held in the evenings at the great bath, when a jazz group played. There was dancing, food on offer, and – best of all – swimming in the bath. I was doing my teacher training at Newton Park (now Bath Spa University) and this event was the festival highlight for me, as I sat up to my neck in very hot water, chatting to friends and revelling in the music, the fun – and the thought that I was following in the footsteps of well-to-do Romans!Barbara Penrose Leicester Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
