A direct descendant of Crazy Horse,
the Indian Sioux warrior, Joan Shaw (Salena’s birth name) was born in Newport
News, Virginia, and began singing in church and school before making her debut
on life’s bigger stages.
As a very young girl, Joan Shaw`s career began in New
York at Manhattan clubs and going on to Harlem’s Apollo Theater, when she won
the amateur night singing “September Song”.
Joan grew up in New York in the
company of musicians who would become the legends: Miles Davis, Charlie Parker,
Dizzie Gillespie, Bud Powell, Wes Montgomery, Chico Hamilton and Stan Getz, she
met all these people, jamming with some of them and began making demonstration
records for artists like Peggy Lee, Brenda Lee and Lena Horne, before getting
her own recording contract.
Based in New York, with her own
“Blues Express Orchestra”, Joan toured widely across the US with “King” Curtis
in her band (whom she named), also working with Johnnie Ray, Laverne Baker,
Arthur Prysock, and Frankie Lyman.
This rhythm ‘n’ blues period was the
forerunner to rock ‘n’ roll and it is evident that Joan Shaw is revered today
by afficionados of that important era, making 15 singles by the time she was
fifteen years old (the first being released at the age of eleven), many can be
heard today through You Tube by the wonder of the Internet).
Joan then worked
regularly at the famous venues of the Village Vanguard, Minton’s Playhouse and
Wells Supper Club. Leonard Feather, the noted jazz critic for “Downbeat”
magazine, named Joan Shaw as one of his choices as “most promising newcomers”,
together with “Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme”.
Glamorous
and beautiful, with her distinctive voice and relaxed style, by then she had
met and sung with a array of great jazz names. Her
photo album shows her arm in arm with everyone from Betty Carter to Cab
Calloway, Billy Eckstine, Vic Damone and Lena Horne.
However, wanting to expand
her horizons, and concerned at racism in her native country, Joan Shaw bought a
one way ticket to Madrid where, having sung one song at the “Whiskey and Jazz
Club”, on the same night as her arrival in Spain, she was immediately engaged
to sing nightly with Dexter Gordon. But London called, and arriving in 1965,
her management recommended a name-change and Salena Jones was born!
She was soon booked to appear for
the first time at Ronnie Scott`s for two weeks but, such was the audience
reaction that she was held over for another week, and then another: eventually
appearing for seven consecutive weeks – still a record after all this time for
one of the most famous clubs in the world.
Salena opened her own jazz club in
London in 2001. Over the last five decades, Salena Jones has been a central
figure on the British jazz scene and from her base here she has conquered the
world. Salena has played everywhere, from Canada, throughout Europe, South
Africa, South America, to the US and Asia, where she is a well-loved artiste
(and has appeared in Japan at least annually since 1978).
Salena has sung with Louis
Armstrong, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Maynard Ferguson, Mark Murphy,
Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Dudley Moore, Roy Budd, and Toots Thielemans,
Tom Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the BBC Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Salena’s recording career has reflected her ability to choose both
varied repertoire and also to move beyond jazz boundaries. She has made 43 solo
albums and 22 singles over a period of 50 years in the business.
The Lp album this posting was launched in Japan in 1988 by JVC Records.
TRACK LIST:
1. Let it be;
2. Norwegian wood;
3. Here comes the sun;
4. The long and winding road;
5. Got to get you into my life;
6. If a fell;
7. Something;
8. Get back;
9. Hey Jude;
10.Don't let me down;
11. The fool on the hill;
12. Here, there and everywhere.
Links:
