Final Bar: Cleo Laine, Akiko Tsuruga, Hermeto Pascoal

Cleo Laine, Akiko Tsuruga, Hermeto Pascoal

By DownBeat I Sep. 16, 2025

Cleo Laine, 1927–2025
(Photo: Courtesy Booking Entertainment)

The music world mourns the loss of three important artists from the realms of jazz, blues and beyond with the recent passing of vocalist Cleo Laine, organist Akiko Tsuruga and composer/multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal. DownBeat celebrates the lives and careers of these dedicated, unforgettable performers and recognizes the major contributions they’ve made to global culture, not to mention the immeasurable amount of joy all three have brought to generations of music lovers and DownBeat readers.

Star Vocalist Cleo Laine Dies at 97

Cleo Laine, the internationally celebrated jazz-inspired vocalist who got her start in the pubs and dancehalls of England in the 1950s, died July 24 at age 97. The contralto-voiced singer, a class act who was also known for her work as an actor and writer, received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical categories. In 1985 Laine became the first British artist to win a Grammy as best female jazz vocalist, for the third of her live albums recorded at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Laine and her husband, alto saxophonist John Dankworth, were long-time stars of the British jazz scene who helped introduced the genre to reluctant listeners and furthered the cause of music education. Their son, Alec, became a successful bassist and bandleader, and their daughter Jacqui grew up to be a vocalist, actor and songwriter.

Laine was born in Southall, West London, and was raised as Clementina Campbell. She was encouraged by her mother to take singing and dancing lessons. In her mid-20s, Laine began seriously to apply herself to singing, working initially in pubs. Influenced by the Black singers she heard in American musicals, she forged a personal style that was unique among popular female singers of the 1940s and early ’50s. Eventually she auditioned for and was hired into a jazz band led by Dankworth. As she matured in her craft, Laine found inspiration in the jazz stylings of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

She toured with the Dankworth band beginning in the mid-50s and, after marrying the bandleader in 1957, accompanied him to the U.S. in 1959 for his appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. Laine sang with the band at Birdland in New York during the trip overseas. She made a substantial number of recordings in the ’60s, performing on show-song and soundtrack projects as well as straightahead jazz albums.

Laine also found success in the realms of classical music and live theatrical productions. She starred in the 1971 London production of Jerome Kern’s Show Boat, made her U.S. debut in 1972 at Carnegie Hall and recorded Arnold Schoenberg’s poetry-cycle Pierrot Lunaire.

Over the years, Laine collaborated with flutist James Galway and classical guitarist John Williams. She contributed to Michael Tilson Thomas’ LSO series The Gershwin Years and a tribute to women songwriters including Joni Mitchell and Holiday titled Woman To Woman. She teamed with Ray Charles for the 1976 for a recording of Porgy And Bess and collaborated with Mel Tormé on the 1992 album Nothing Without You. She also appeared alongside Frank Sinatra during a week of performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1992.

In addition to her autobiography, Cleo, Laine published an informal guide to learning to sing freely titled You Can Sing If You Want To in 1997. Also during that year, Laine was made a dame in her native England.

Soul-Jazz Organist Akiko Tsuruga Dies at 58

Akiko Tsuruga, whose virtuosic command and stylistic flair made her a leading jazz organist of her generation and a steward of the broader soul-jazz tradition, died Sept. 13 in Brooklyn, New York. She was 58.

Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Tsuruga was known for her work with soul-jazz artists such as alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, who featured her in his band for more than 15 years, and organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, who was a mentor to her. She continued a tradition set in motion by American jazz organ legends Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, according to her husband, trumpeter Joe Magnarelli.

Akiko Tsuruga (Photo by Mark Sheldon) — Akiko Tsuruga (photo by Mark Sheldon)

Tsuruga was born on Sept. 1, 1967, and she received support in her musical interests as a child. At age 3 she began studying at the Yamaha Music School.

“I can remember the day when the organ arrived at my house,” she said in a 2024 interview with Hot House magazine. “The representative from the music store came and played a couple of tunes on it and I just thought, ‘wow.’ I fell in love with the organ immediately. When I first played that organ, I couldn’t reach the pedals, so I was playing the bass with my left hand and chords and melody with my right hand.”

Tsuruga continued her studies at the Osaka College of Music and honed her craft at the Don Shop, located across the street from the Osaka location of the Blue Note jazz club. There she met drummer Grady Tate, who encouraged her to move to New York.

After arriving in New York in 2001, Tsuruga began playing at Showman’s, where she caught the attention of Donaldson in 2007. In addition to her energetic live performances, she recorded albums with her own groups, including Beyond Nostalgia (Steeplechase), released last year. Tsuruga was a member of the all-women collective Lioness, which released its debut, Pride & Joy (Posi-Tone), in 2018. She also worked with the Jeff Hamilton Organ Trio.

Brazilian Composer, Instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal Dies at 89

Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal died Sept. 13 at age 89. Known for his resourcefulness as an eccentric, versatile musician with a radically broad stylistic palette, Pascoal wrote thousands of compositions and orchestrated and arranged songs for other artists including Miles Davis, who included three of his compositions on the 1971 jazz fusion album Live-Evil.

Hermeto Pascoal (photo by Michael Jackson)

Pascoal was born in 1936 in the Brazilian state of Alagoas and became recognized for his ability to make music out of instruments and non-instruments alike, starting on his father’s button accordion and later piano. He also played flutes and saxophones and found creative ways to get interesting sounds from objects like gourds, toys, water bottles and other everyday items, which he ingeniously incorporated into his recordings and live performances. Pascoal even recorded the snorts and squeals of two pigs on his 1976 album Slaves Mass (Missa Dos Escravos). DB