SALENA JONES (b. Joan Shaw)
A direct descendant of Crazy Horse, the Indian Sioux warrior, Joan Shaw was born in Newport News, Virginia, and began singing in church and school before making her debut on life's bigger stages.
As a very young teenager, Joan Shaw`s career began at Manhattan's legendary Harlem Apollo, when she won the amateur night singing “September Song”.
Joan grew up in New York in the company of musicians who would become the legends: Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Bud Powell, Wes Montgomery, Chico Hamilton and Stan Getz - she met all these people, jamming with some of them, and began making demonstration records for artists like Peggy Lee, Brenda Lee and Lena Horne, before getting her own recording contract.
Based in New York, with her own “Blues Extra Orchestra”, Salena toured widely across the US with “King” Curtis in her band (whom she named), also working with Johnnie Ray, Laverne Baker, Arthur Prysock, and Frankie Lyman.
This rhythm`n`blues period was the forerunner to rock`n`roll and looking back, one sees how Joan Shaw is now revered by afficionados of those times.
Joan then worked regularly at the famous venues of the Village Vanguard, Minton`s Playhouse and Wells Supper Club. Leonard Feather, the noted jazz critic for “Downbeat” magazine, named Joan Shaw as one of the “most promising newcomers of 1964”, together with “Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme”.
Glamorous and beautiful, with her distinctive voice and relaxed style, by then she had met and sung with a breathtaking array of great jazz names. Her photo album shows her arm in arm with everyone from Betty Carter to Cab Calloway, Billy Eckstine, Vic Damone and Lena Horne.
However, wanting to expand her horizons, and concerned at the racism in her native country, Joan Shaw bought a one way ticket to Madrid where, having sung one song at the “Whiskey and Jazz Club”, on the same night as her arrival in Spain, she was immediately engaged to sing nightly with Dexter Gordon.
But London called, and arriving in 1965, her management recommended a name-change ”and Salena Jones was born! She was soon booked to appear for the first time at Ronnie Scott`s for two weeks but, such was the audience reaction that she was held over for another week, and then another: eventually appearing for seven consecutive weeks - still a record after this time for one of the the most famous clubs in the world.
Over the last five decades, Salena Jones has been a central figure on the British jazz scene and from her base here she has conquered the world. Salena has played everywhere, from Canada, throughout Europe, South Africa, South America, to the US and Asia, where she has appeared in Japan at least annually since 1978, and where she is a well loved artiste.
Salena`s recording career has reflected her ability to both choose exciting repertoire and also to move beyond jazz boundaries. She has recorded collections of Porter, Lennon and McCartney and Carlos Jobim as well as Hollywood and Broadway musical numbers, making 38 solo albums and 22 singles to date.
Salena has sung with Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Maynard Ferguson, Mark Murphy, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Dudley Moore, Roy Budd, and Toots Thielemans, Tom Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the BBC Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, amongst many well-known names.
Latterly, over the past twelve months, Salena has appeared in China, for the second time at the Shanghai Jazz Festival, Thailand and made three concert trips to Japan.
Whether singing jazz standards, blues or contemporary songs, critics acclaim Salena Jones`s perfect pitch, natural swing and her interpretations of stylish songs. They also describe her elegance, panache and charismatic stage presence which make her shows a very special experience. January 2010
