The world's First Couple of Jazz should prove a truly star attraction when the BMDS kicks off its 50th anniversary celebrations in March.

Cleo Laine and John Dankworth will appear in two concerts at Marriott's Castle Harbour Hotel on March 11 and 12.

As BMDS president, Mr. Adrian Lee-Emery points out, "This takes us back to the very early days of BMDS when it was the first, and only, organisation to bring overseas professional musicians and performers to Bermuda.'' Cleo Laine and John Dankworth are already popular visitors to Bermuda, having appeared in an early Bermuda Festival (Ms Laine appeared in a stunning solo act when illness prevented Dankworth from appearing with her on the second Festival appearance three years ago).

Former Festival chairman, Mr. John Ellison, has been friends with them since their first appearance at the Festival. He recalls the occasion when they were invited to attend the annual Festival backstage crew party at the Trattoria restaurant.

"When they walked in, the entire restaurant spontaneously rose to its feet and gave them the most deafening standing ovation -- it must have lasted five minutes!'' The only singer ever to receive Grammy nominations in three categories (Female Jazz, Popular and Classical), Cleo Laine can claim to be one of the very few, if not the only, British jazz singer to become a legend in the music world.

The Times newspaper describes her quite simply as "the best singer in the world.'' For four decades now, she has thrilled audiences on every continent, winning praise -- and close friendship ever since -- from Ella Fitzgerald, who happened to be in the audience the very first time Cleo Laine got up and sang an impromptu set of songs at new York's Birdland jazz club during her then, more famous husband's tour of the US back in 1959.

Since their marriage in 1958, their remarkable partnership has, itself, become something of a legend. Besides their concerts, they are also famous for the Wavendon Allmusic Plan which they founded at their country home in England, in an effort to promote a broader view of different forms of music. Their concerts and music camps (including one for children) have received world coverage through the BBC.

With an English mother and Jamaican father (he settled in England after the First World War), Ms Laine rose from humble beginnings that found her singing in local dance halls.

It was undoubtedly her audition for John Dankworth's band that set her -- and him -- on the road to international fame.

Her achievements are almost too long to list. Besides her popularity with jazz audiences all over the world, she is also recognised as one of Britain's leading actresses (rave reviews for "A Midsummer Night's Dream,'' "Hedda Gabler'') and the star of such musicals as "A Little Night Music'' and "The Merry Widow,'' and a Tony nomination for the Broadway hit, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood.'' She played "God'' in the BBC Proms' version of Benjamin Britten's "Noyes Fludde,'' and has been seen frequently on American TV, notably in "An Evening at the Boston Pops with Cleo Laine'' and "Cleo Laine: Live at Wolftrap.'' Her album, "Shakespeare and All That Jazz'' received a five-star rating in Down Beat magazine and her 1990 Woman to Woman was awarded "five stars out of a possible four'' by America's Jazz Times.

Long considered one of Britain's best jazz musicians, Dankworth trained at the Royal Academy of Music, but the lure of the clarinet, and then the alto saxophone, beckoned, and led to his playing with such greats as Charlie Parker and Sidney Bechet. With the Dankworth Seven band he earned world-wide acclaim and was a huge success at the Newport Jazz Festival of 1959.

The list of musicians he has played with reads like a jazz roll of honour, includes Duke Ellington, Nat "King'' Cole, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Gerry Mulligan, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzie Gillespie, George Shearing, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson -- and is almost endless.

He, too, has found comparable fame in the musical theatre and classical music world, composing scores for such films as "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,'' "Darling,'' and "The servant,'' and commissions from such famed institutions as the London Philharmonc Society, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company. He founded the London Symphony Orchestra's "pops'' programme.

Tickets are $40 and pre-booking for BMDS members opens at Daylesford On Saturday, February 4 (12 noon-2 p.m.), and February 6 and 7 from 5.30-7.30 p.m. Booking for the general public opens at Daylesford on Saturday, February 11. Early booking is strongly advised.

BIG SHOW -- Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, in March.