Intro Song: Marlena
Intro song performed & written by: Gail Nobles
Keyboardist: Gail Nobles
Vocals by: Gail Nobles

Other songs by: Marlena Shaw
Photo: Wikipedia/public domain

Marlena Shaw was a variety of music. She was incredible. Jazz, Blues, Soul, & Disco.
(Singing)
That’s a song that sounds like soul & R&B by Marlena Shaw. But what about Jazz?
(Singing It’s Stormy Monday)
Now that’s Jazz.
(Singing)
I’m Satisfied! Marlena Shaw had some Motown talent.
(Singing)
It’s Better than Walking Out. She was about Disco too.
Marlena could sing any kind of song.

She began her singing career in the 1960s and is still singing today. Her music has often been sampled in hip hop music, and used in television commercials.

Shaw began to make singing appearances in jazz clubs whenever she could spare the time. She got an audition with Columbia label talent scout John Hammond. Shaw did not perform well during the audition because she was too nervous. She continued to play small clubs until 1966. Her career took off in 1966 when she landed a gig with the Playboy Club chain in Chicago. It was through this gig that she met with representatives of the Chess Records music label, and soon signed with them. She released her first two albums on their subsidiary Cadet Records. A 1969 album track "California Soul", a funk-soul tune written by Ashford & Simpson and originally issued as a single by American pop quintet The 5th Dimension, later became a staple of the UK rare groove scene. This song has appeared in television commercials for Dockers, KFC, and Dodge Ram trucks. Unable to find her own style at Chess, she moved to the jazz-oriented Blue Note Records in 1972.

In 1977 she released an LP Sweet Beginnings on Columbia. In 1982. Marlena recorded the Gary Taylor ballad Without You In My Life. In 1999, 2001, and 2007, Shaw was one of the performers North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. I’m Gail Nobles. I hope you have enjoyed today’s topic ….

I'm Gail Nobles. I hope you have enjoyed today's topic ...

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