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Marlena Shaw, legendary “California Soul” singer, dies at 81
Legendary jazz singer Marlena Shaw, known for her songs “California Soul” and “Woman of the Ghetto” died at the age of 81 on Friday, her daughter announced in a video on Facebook.
“It’s with a very heavy heart for myself and my family I announce that our beloved mother, your beloved icon and artist Marlena Shaw has passed away,” Marla Bradshaw, her daughter, said. “She went listening to some of her favorite songs.”
Bradshaw said she did not want to go into too many details but wanted to assure fans her mother’s death “was peaceful” and that the family was “at peace.”
Matt Green / Getty Images
The musician — who influenced music in the jazz, soul, disco and R&B genres — rose to popularity in the 1960s after she was noticed by the Chess Records label. She sang her recognizable “California Soul” with the label before switching to a more jazz-oriented label.
Shaw’s music spanned generations and was often featured and sampled in popular media, TV commercials and other songs. Her lyrics often communicated the strength of the Black American community and Black women at a time when there was a great racial divide in the country and its politics.
In total, Shaw put together 17 albums with eight different record labels.
Verve Records, who she worked with in 1987, put out a statement about Shaw’s death, celebrating her contribution to the label’s history.
“We are saddened by the passing of Marlena Shaw, a wonderful singer whose ‘California Soul’ is as popular today as it ever was and whose album ‘It Is Love: Recorded Live At Vine St.’ helped relaunch the Verve label in 1987,” the label posted on Facebook.
Bradshaw said she and her twin sister happily celebrated their birthdays with their mom the day before she passed, which gave her a final chance to spend time with those she loved.
“Miss Shaw is in heaven,” her daughter said.
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At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
