Marlena Shaw born 22 September 1939

Marlina Burgess (September 22, 1939 – January 19, 2024), professionally known by her stage name Marlena Shaw, was  a charismatic and versatile American jazz vocalist, whose performances were marked by an artful blend of pop standards and straight-ahead jazz tunes. Her extroverted stage presence gave her an edge over other vocalists, and singing live before an audience was where she felt most comfortable. Her music has often been sampled in hip hop music, and used in television commercials. 

Marlena Shaw was born in New Rochelle, New York. She was first introduced to music by her uncle Jimmy Burgess, a jazz trumpet player. In an interview with The New York Times, she told the reporter: "Jimmy Burgess introduced me to good music through records – Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, a lot of gospel things, and Al Hibbler, who really knows how to phrase a song." In 1952, Burgess brought her on stage at the Apollo Theater in Harlem to sing with his band. Shaw's mother did not want Marlena to go on tour with her uncle at such a young age. Shaw enrolled in the New York State Teachers College in Potsdam (now known as the State University of New York at Potsdam) to study music but she later dropped out. 

Shaw began to make singing appearances in jazz clubs whenever she could spare the time. The most notable of these appearances was in 1963 when she worked with jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee. She was supposed to play at the Newport Jazz Festival with McGhee and his band, but left the group after getting into an argument with one of the band members. Later that year, she got an audition with Columbia label talent scout John Hammond. Shaw did not perform well during the audition because she was too nervous. 

Marlena with the Count

Undeterred Shaw performed regularly for audiences in the Catskills, Playboy Clubs, and other New York-area venues. In 1966, she recorded "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" for Cadet Records, and the single sold very well for an unknown singer. The success of the single, a rare vocal version of the tune, prompted executives at Cadet to encourage her to record a whole album for the label in 1967. The diversity of styles, including blues, jazz, and pop standards, was reflected in the album's title, Out of Different Bags. Through her accountant, she was brought to the attention of bandleader Count Basie, and she ended up singing with the Basie band for four years. 

                                   

In 1969 Cadet released her second album. One of the tracks "California Soul", a funk-soul tune written by Ashford & Simpson and originally issued as a single by American pop quintet The 5th Dimension, later became a staple of the UK rare groove scene. Unable to find her own style at Chess, she moved to the jazz-oriented Blue Note Records in 1972 where she released several albums, California Soul has been sampled by a number of artists, including Gang Starr and Stereo MC, and Diplo released a remix of the song in 2008. The track has also been licensed for use in several commercials, including ads for Dodge, KFC and Dockers. 

In 1972, after leaving the Basie Orchestra, Shaw was the first female vocalist signed to Blue Note Records, and she toured for a while with the Sammy Davis, Jr. She recorded five albums and several singles for Blue Note, and critics likened her singing style to Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. At her club shows, Shaw dazzled audiences with her intoxicating blend of straight-ahead jazz, soul, pop, and classic R&B, but her recordings also satisfied those fans of traditional jazz who had no prejudices about blues and R&B.

Shaw’s highest-charting album in the U.S. was 1977’s “Sweet Beginnings” on Columbia, which memorably included her swanky cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “Go Away Little Girl” in the track “Yu-Ma/Go Away Little Boy,” which achieved some R&B chart success. It was originally recorded by Nancy Wilson. The album peaked at No. 62.

It also contained the track "Look at Me, Look at You", again popular on the UK rare groove scene. She sang the theme song "Don't Ask to Stay Until Tomorrow" from the 1977 film Looking for Mr. Goodbar, that is also found on its soundtrack. She also recorded one of the disco era's biggest hits, a remake of "Touch Me in the Morning", also on Columbia Records. 

In 1982 Marlena recorded the Gary Taylor ballad called "Without You in My Life" from the LP Let Me in Your Life, which was jointly produced by Johnny Bristol and Webster Lewis on South Bay Records. This had moderate chart success in the US. In 1983 she recorded the vocals for "Could It Be You", a track by Phil Upchurch on his Name of the Game album. Shaw continued to perform and record. In 1999, 2001 and again in 2007, Shaw was one of the performers at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. 

In 2016, she retired to her home in Las Vegas where she died on January 19, 2024, at the age of 84.

(Edited from Wikipedia , Billboard, AllMusic & LA Times)