Marlena Shaw
She's known as a jazz artist, but some only knew her as a disco artist, while others yet think of her in an R&B mode. So who is Marlena Shaw? Well.....she is all of these. Ask Marlena and she'll flat out tell you she's a jazz artist, yet there's no denying her R&B sides and her disco undertakings.
Born Marlina Burgess on September 22, 1942 in New Rochelle, New York, she inherited her love of music and jazz in particular from her uncle. After her uncle, Jimmy Burgess, introduced her to the recordings of Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, she caught the jazz bug, and purchased records by Al Hibbler, a vocalist who had a big influence on her singing style. When she was ten she performed at Harlem's Apollo Theater, and despite the enthusiastic reception she received in front of one of the world's toughest audiences, her mother refused to let her go on the road with her uncle, a trumpet player.
Shaw began attending the State Teachers' College in Potsdam, N.Y. but later dropped out. For a time in 1963 she worked around New England with a trio led by Howard McGhee. By the mid-1960's she was performing regularly for audiences in the Catskills, Playboy clubs and other New York area clubs. She was discovered by Chess Records in 1966 while singing on the Playboy lounge circuit. On Chess' Cadet subsidiary, under the aegis of producer Richard Evans, she performed vocal counterparts of jazz hits such as Mercy Mercy Mercy by Cannonball Adderley and Wade In The Water by Ramsey Lewis Trio. Chess released two albums and a series of singles before Shaw left the company in 1968.
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New York Beat
Album Review
- Lookin' for Love by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
- Live in Tokyo by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
- Elemental Soul by AAJ Staff
April 11, 2013
Jazz This Week: Marlena Shaw, Four in One, Cornet Chop Suey, Oikos...
March 02, 2012
Jazz at the Bistro: Marlena Shaw Postponed, Russell Malone and Cyrus...
May 27, 2010
Jazz This Week: Marlena Shaw, Will Matthews, Glendale Jazz Festival,...
May 15, 2010
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