He's done everything... but not yet everything. John Dankworth tells John Docherty

JOHN Dankworth, you might think, has done it all.

In a career spanning more than 40 years he has played with all the greats in all the best places in every major-and perhaps not-so-major capital of the world.

Songwriter, musician with a string of film scores to his credit and permanent accompanist to jazz-singer wife Cleo Laine.

But no. He still has a successful musical to write.

He's made one attempt on the life of the French writer, Colette, which was a minor success, being staged in the West End for three months.

So the mountain is still there to climb - or scale, perhaps.

Now 75, he's a legend in modern jazz.

Few would need to be told that he is synonymous with jazz alto sax and clarinet. And he still tours the world with Cleo.

While he is accomplished, he is also modest, and there's none of the temperamental star about him.

But what does impress is that he has stayed the course and wants to continue.

"Cleo and I decided to keep going while we could," he said.

He was born in London into a musical family, a background that he acknowledged had helped him greatly in his career.

But why go into jazz particularly?

"I think I might have been kicking against the traces a bit," he smiled. "My sister was a classical musician. I went and bought myself a clarinet, and my parents said 'well, if you want to play this music, do it properly'. So I went to the Royal Academy to study."

He was inspired by Benny Goodman, whom he calls one of the great clarinettists of the 20th century.

"I actually played with him in 1949, when he came to London," John said, and added, self-deprecatingly, "there weren't that many clarinettists and saxists around during the war and post war, so I was lucky.

"Nowadays there are a lot of very good young jazzmen and women and it's not so easy for them to make their way."

He has played with many illustrious jazz names - Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, and vaudeville star Sophie Tucker.

Was there anything special that he learned from the greats?

"Not really," he replied, "except that if you had the ability, you, too, could succeed."

Nat King Cole was always perfectly charming, so were Sarah and Ella, they were ordinary people with extraordinary talent.

What they cared about was whether you could do your job.

Along the way, John and Cleo established the Wavendon Allmusic Centre at their country home.

Through performance and musical education, it has helped people broaden their views about music.

Wavendon Stables is now a renowned arts centre with a full and varied concert programme and offering educational courses for all ages and interests.

"There's every reason to eradicate snobbism in music," he explained. "People were sceptical when we started, but we've had tremendous support over the years.

"It works at a performance and educational level."