Cleo Laine "Just Cleo is fine," she says when the question of what to call her is raised. "I only use the title when I think it can help."
Surprisingly, this generally doesn't include America, though not because they're unimpressed by the British gentry. "They understand John's 'Sir' but Dame?" She laughs. "Because of There Is Nothing Like A Dame I don't think they know about the other connotation!"
Whether she uses it or not, the title is clearly deserved, following 58 years in the business – not to mention a showbiz marriage to Sir John Dankworth that's lasted 51 years. After that length of time in the public eye, it's unlikely that you can ask Cleo a question that she hasn't already been asked a hundred times before. But she doesn’t mind. Indeed, when I comment that I don’t know where to start the interview, she just laughs and says cheerily "Look, I'll just start at the beginning and we’ll try and get you to the end...
"I auditioned for John Dankworth in 1951 and we got married in 1958." She laughs. "So that's basically our relationship wiped out in one sentence. Before that I auditioned everywhere to try and get into the business but didn't really get anywhere. I called auditioning my hobby. Eventually I auditioned for John and that was the start of my professional career. And since then..." She pauses, trying to do the career justice in an interview friendly soundbite. "Well, I've done a hell of a lot of stuff."
You could say that. She's toured the world. She's won Grammys, a Tony Award, collaborated with Dudley Moore, Count Basie, Duke Ellington... "James Galway, Ray Charles, Mel Torme..."
However, Cleo is quick to explain that none of it was planned. "Most of my career, it's been chance. There are things I've done that, if you'd put it in front of me beforehand I'd have thought no, I can't do that. If someone had suggested I do a Kurt Weill opera (Seven Deadly Sins), I would have said definitely not for me, but then someone asked me to do it, I learned it and did it. I think it's because I had a voice that could cope with things that most singers can't."
Remarkably given her four octave range and adaptability, Cleo doesn’t have a particular voice care regime – "I gave up smoking in the 60s, that’s about it" – and never trained. Well, not formally.
"My father was a singer so I learned a lot from him, and at my school in Southall, there was a teacher there who saw, or rather heard, I had some sort of talent and nurtured it. You have to have those sort of people who will give you confidence. I always thought I was going to go on the stage singing. And if I couldn't sing," she adds, "I would go on the stage, sweeping."
Happily it was the former, and she and Sir John are still going strong, including a forthcoming gig for the London Jazz Festival. It’s clear Cleo still loves to perform although she does admit to finding touring a little bit of a chore these days.
"After 9/11, going to any airport anywhere is like being considered a terrorist. And as I've had a knee replacement, I set off the metal detectors!"
She and John though do have an alternative to touring: their own theatre, The Stables, in Wavendon, near Milton Keynes. Through their own Wavendon Music Centre, they’ve also provided a musical education for a whole new generation – in fact, generations – of musicians.
"Wavendon happened 40-odd years ago," explains Cleo. "We were in a beautiful Georgian house, not far from where The Stables is now, and we decided that we would try and create a venue to present all kinds of music and to have courses. We didn't really know what the hell we were doing at the time, but we decided we would do it! But we had to find a house that didn't have neighbours so we could make noise, and also that had land around it, so we could build it.
"We found this old rectory in Wavendon, and we knocked it around to suit us, and we lived in it for about a year before we said to ourselves, ‘we moved here so that we could make a new venture and we're not doing it, so let's get our fingers out.’
"We started by developing the old stables, and we called on our friends to help. We had people like (guitarist) John Williams knocking things down, which was quite frightening as his fingers are much more precious than ours! I was painting, we were all doing things, and eventually we had a 100-seater venue."
With the help of some Lottery money, that’s now become a 450-seater state-of-the-art theatre, while the Music Centre has also been a huge success. "I think it's created a lot of wonderful musicians... like my two children (acclaimed singer Jacqui and bass player Alec Dankworth). When they were young we told them if they wanted to see us, they’d have to come to the courses!"
The project has also exposed Cleo and John to new music. So who should we be listening to?
"I was there the other day for Chris Garrick, I think he's a genius, the best jazz violinist in the world today. I like Dianne Reeves, she's a great singer, and Kurt Elling and Ian Shaw, they're wonderful."
Cleo though has the edge on all of them. Garrick and Elling and Reeves and Shaw are good, but none of them have the ultimate accolade of starring in a Muppet Show.
"Yes, I was one of the first," explains Cleo. "I'm not sure it's the ultimate accolade though," she adds, laughing. "I think that’s maybe being made a Dame...?!"