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:
“By weaker accents, what’s your praise
When Philomel her voice doth raise?”
—Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639)
“In the middle of the night, as indeed each time that we lay on the shore of a lake, we heard the voice of the loon, loud and distinct, from far over the lake. It is a very wild sound, quite in keeping with the place and the circumstances of the traveler, and very unlike the voice of a bird. I could lie awake for hours listening to it, it is so thrilling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My solitaria
Are the meditations of a central mind.
I hear the motions of the spirit and the sound
Of what is secret becomes, for me, a voice
That is my own voice speaking in my ear.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)