Jacqui Dankworth MBE – born Jacqueline Dankworth in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England on February 5, 1963 – is a British jazz singer and was raised in a musical household. The daughter of British jazz vocalist Cleo Laine and British clarinetist/saxophonist John Dankworth, she attended St. Christopher School in Hertfordshire and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. She initially pursued acting as a career, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and in West End theatre (the UK’s equivalent of Broadway theater). Some of her most prominent roles include playing Cinderella in the stage production of the musical Into the Woods, and appearing the motion picture Shoreditch, where she sang “My Man”, a song closely associated with Billie Holiday. Her first album, First Cry (1994), was a collaboration with vibraphonist Anthony Kerr. In 2000, she collaborated with pianist and composer James Pearson on the album For All We Know. Her first true solo album was 2003’s As the Sun Shines Down on Me. The album impressed British broadcaster and journalist Michael Parkinson and BBC Radio 2, and received generous amounts of airplay throughout the year. Collaborating with jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine, she appeared on his album Devotion. In 2004, Jacqui Dankworth released the album Detour Ahead, followed by Back to You (2009), It Happens Quietly (2011), and Live to Love (2013). In 2019, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to music.
