The jazz and R&B vocalist Marlena Shaw has died. She was 81. Shaw’s daughter, Marla Bradshaw, announced the legendary singer’s death in a Facebook video posted on Friday January 19.
Shaw’s highest-charting album in the U.S. was 1977’s Sweet Beginnings, 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.
She was born Marlina Burgess in New Rochelle, N.Y., on Sept. 22, 1942. Her uncle, Jimmy Burgess, was a jazz trumpeter whom she credited with introducing her to “good music” — the likes of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.
Marlena Shaw’s 1969 “California Soul” will be instantly recognizable to many today for its use in television ads (such as for Dockers, KFC and Dodge Ram trucks) and sampling in hip-hop songs.
Marlena Shaw performed at the WBGO gala at the Waldorf Astoria on New Year's Eve in 1992. Her trio featured Larry Nash, Earl May and Jerry Jones. Gary Walker introduced her as "a really spirited lady," and she was, from the first note. She sang "The Joint is Jumpin'" and "Corner Pocket)," "Go Away Little Boy," "The Nearness of You," "All the Things You Are," "You've Changed" (with a funny story), "This Little Light of Mine," and to begin to end her set with a long "Good-bye," she sang the blues.
Listen above to this cut from the performance, from the WBGO Archive, thanks to the Grammy Museum Grant Program and the Wyncote Foundation.
