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Our Thoughts Go Out To Johnny Dankworth's Family
And May He Rest In Peace

Sir John Dankworth
September 20th 1927 ~ February 6th 2010
English jazz icon, composer, saxophonist, clarinetist and musical arranger, Johnny Dankworth, has sadly died in King Edward VII Hospital, London after being ill for several months. At the age of 83, he leaves behind a close and loving family including his wife jazz singer Cleo Laine, their son jazz bassist, Alec and their daughter, jazz singer Jacqui.
Sir John Dankworth
Johnny Dankworth was born in Woodford, Essex, playing piano and violin from an early age, but inspired by Johnny Hodges, he took up the alto saxophone. After winning a place at the Royal Academy of Music aged 17, and following a short stint in the Army, he was voted British Musician of the Year in 1949. That same year he attended the Paris Jazz Festival, where he played with the legendary Charlie Parker. Johnny and future his wife Cleo met in 1950, while he was auditioning for singers with his band, the Dankworth Seven. The band performed at the Birdland jazz club in New York and shortly afterwards shared the stage with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for a number of concerts. They also performed at a jazz event at New York’s Lewisohn stadium where Louis Armstrong joined them for a set. By now, Cleo Laine's singing was a regular feature of Dankworth's recordings and public appearances and they married in 1958. In the 1960s, he scored such films as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Servant and Modesty Blaise and wrote the theme tunes for The Avengers and Tomorrow's World. Recordings during this period featured many other respected jazz names. Some were full-time members of the Dankworth band at one time or another, like Tony Coe, Mike Gibbs, Peter King, Dudley Moore, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, while others such as Dave Holland, John McLaughlin, Tubby Hayes and Dick Morrissey were occasional participants. During this active period of recording, the Dankworth band nevertheless found time for frequent live appearances and radio shows, including tours in Britain and Europe with Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan and Gerry Mulligan, and concerts and radio performances with Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald. He and wife Cleo founded their charity, the Wavendon Allmusic Plan, in 1969. In the 70s and 80s, Johnny was appointed CBE in 1974, he continued his friendship with Duke Ellington until the Dukes death in 1974, after which he recorded an album of symphonic arrangements of many Ellington tunes featuring another Ellingtonian trumpeter Barry Lee Hall. He also performed with the Ellington Orchestra under the direction of Duke’s son, Mercer Ellington. In this period Johnny recorded various symphonic albums with Dizzy Gillespie and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra to mention a few. Other jazz musicians with whom he performed include George Shearing, Toots Thielemans, Benny Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Tadd Dameron, Slam Stewart, and Oscar Peterson. In 1985 he founded the London Symphony Orchestra Summer Pops In 1993 he formed the Dankworth Generation Band, with his son Alec. Johnny was also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and received the Freedom of the City of London in 1994. He always had an enthusiasm for jazz education, for many years running the Allmusic summer schools at The Stables in Wavendon, a theatre created by him and his wife, Cleo, in their back garden. Johnny was knighted in 2006 for services to music and Sir John remained an active composer into later life, and he wrote a jazz violin concerto for soloist Christian Garrick to play. This work had its world premier in Nottingham on 1 March 2008 in partnership with the Nottingham Youth Orchestra. In October last year Sir John fell ill at the end of a US tour with his wife, Cleo Layne. The couple cancelled a number of UK concert dates for the following month, but Sir John did return to the concert stage at the London Jazz Festival, playing his saxophone from his wheelchair at the Royal Festival Hall and also played at John & Cleo's Christmas Show on the 17 December at The Stables. On the day of Sir John's death a pre-arranged show at The Stables bravely went ahaed. The concert which featured performances from Dame Cleo and the couple's jazz musician children Alec and Jacqui, along with celebrities Paul O'Grady, Prunella Scales, Maureen Lipman, Timothy West and Victoria Wood turned the concert into a celebration of Sir John's life. Dame Cleo did not brake the sorrowful news to the 400 strong audience until the finale.
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