Marlena Shawjazz and R&B singer, whose song Californian soul He was one of the most iconic personalities of the soul genre of the late 1960s, he died at the age of 81.
His daughter, Marla Bradshaw, announced the news through a video uploaded to Facebook. The causes of the artist’s death were not revealed.
“It is with great regret, mine and that of my entire family, that I announce that our beloved mother, for you, beloved icon and artist Marlena Shawdied today at 12:03,” Bradshaw says in the post he published on the social network. “He passed away peacefully, he was listening to some of his favorite songs”.
Shaw, a wide-ranging charismatic singer, has had several successes in her career, but her success has been Californian soul (1969), which has remained a popular song and has been used in other songs such as “sample” (when part of one topic creeps into another). Among those who have used there are Gang Starr, Stereo MC and Diplo (which he did a remix).
Marlena had five children and a long career that included 17 recording jobs.The story of the coup
Californian soul was written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the songwriting duo famous for Motown songs like There is no mountain high enough AND It’s nothing like the real thing. Ashford initially released his version of the song in 1968, but Shaw included it on his album The spice of life (1969).
The song was also performed by 5th Dimension AND Marvin GayeBut Shaw’s version became the standard. That album had two hits: the other was ““The Woman from the Ghetto”which was co-written by Shaw and which has also been widely used.
Shaw was born Marlina Burgess in New Rochelle, New York on September 22, 1942.. He sang in jazz clubs before signing with Chess Records in the late ’60s. He released his first two albums on the Chess ‘Cadet record label before moving to Blue Note in 1972.
Shaw, who he had five children and toured for more than 50 years and took it out 17 albums with eight record labels.
In a statement, the Verve Records label remembered Shaw: “We are saddened by the passing of Marlena Shaw, a wonderful singer whose song ‘Californian soul’ is it as popular today as it was before and whose album it is “It’s Love: Recorded Live on Vine St.” he helped relaunch the Verve label in 1987”.
Source: Clarin
