It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Marlena Shaw at the age of 81. Marlena was one of the great Soul and Jazz singers of our music. She started in the 60’s on Cadet and recorded many records which are now regarded as classics like ‘California Soul,’ ‘Woman Of The Ghetto’ and ‘Wade In The Water’.
In the early 70’s she signed to Blue Note and recorded many albums on the cusp of Soul and Jazz that included a great version of Marvin’s ‘Save The Children’, before joining Columbia for her most commercially successful period with many albums. She re-recorded one of her early Cadet songs ‘Go Away Little Boy’ with a very amusing spoken intro which was a big record at the time and is still popular., and a disco version of ‘Touch Me In The Morning’.
In 1999 we compiled an anthology featuring many of her great tracks, which is still to date the biggest selling album on our label. On the back of this Marlena played gigs kin the UK singing her classics backed by a great band including Ernie McKone and members of Push with Nathan Haines on sax. Those sell out shows were dynamic and a far cry from Marlena’s regular Vegas sets. During this time I was privileged to meet Marlena many times and drove her around town to radio interviews and we became close friends. Eventually Marlena was not able to continue the high octave performances and she stopped touring. R.I.P Marlena.
