John Dankworth

John Dankworth, English saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer (died 2010)

Find birthday twins Open interactive profile

Born: September 20, 1927
Died: February 6, 2010
Zodiac sign: Virgo
Birth year: 1927

About John Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinettist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he was a music educator and also her music director. He had violin and piano lessons before settling eventually on the clarinet at the age of 16, after hearing a record by the Benny Goodman Quartet. By now, Cleo Laine's singing was a regular feature of Dankworth's recordings and public appearances.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when John Dankworth was born

John Dankworth was born in 1927. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1927

#1 song"My Blue Heaven" – Gene Austin
Top movieThe Jazz Singer (first talking picture)
Best-selling bookElmer Gantry – Sinclair Lewis

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentBabe Ruth hits 60 home runs
Top headlineLindbergh completes first solo transatlantic flight
Technology milestoneThe Jazz Singer — first feature-length talking film
Defining fadDance marathons peak
Notable inventionPEZ candy dispensers
World population2.04 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
U.S. population119.0M

1927 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in John Dankworth's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1927	2026
Gas	$0.21	$3.45/gal
Average home	$6,100	$435,000
Average income	$3,700	$67,500
Movie ticket	$0.25	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.02	$0.73
Population	119.0M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.