The last spotlight was made for very specific occasions. Endless White by Flying Lotus is a meditation song, an enveloping sonic experiment. With no structure, melody, or vocals, the song is more of a commodity than a tried and true favorite. This time, I decided to go the other way and choose a song with some pep. I’d highly recommend today’s track every time you’re on the move. Marlena Shaw is the artist in the Spotlight, and her song “Somewhere in the Night” is sure to uplift with its balance of elegance and joyous musicality.
Marlena Shaw was exposed to music at an early age. Her grandmother was a soloist in their church’s gospel choir and her uncle was Jimmy Burgess, a jazz trumpeter who introduced her to Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. She must have been interested because at the tender age of 10, she and her uncle performed together at the Apollo Theater. They were so good, they were invited back. More specifically, only Marlena was invited back. Because Jimmy Burgess was a professional musician, he wasn’t allowed to perform in their encore. Marlena Shaw performed alone onstage at the Apollo Theater as a 10 year old.
That experience set her down the path of a professional musician. She studied music at New York State College and sang in jazz bands at small venues in the 1960’s. After performing at a Playboy Club location (as a singer, get your mind out of the gutter) in Chicago, a representative for Chess records approached her and cut a deal. With Chess’s subsidiary Cadet label, Shaw recorded two records: Out of Different Bags (1967) and Spice of Life (1969), the latter of which contains her most enduring track, “California Soul”. The Chess Era is the focus of this Spotlight, but Shaw also went on to have a successful career in disco with Columbia Records in the 1970’s.
As much as Ms.Shaw enjoyed her disco phase, I believe her best work came during her time with Chess Records. On both of her releases with them, she consistently demonstrated her ability to blend jazz and soul sensibilities into a casual and effortless vocal style. Unfortunately, Marlena Shaw had no hand in the composition of her songs. That responsibility fell on Richard Evans, a producer and arranger for Cadet Records during the late 60’s.
Evans moved to Chicago from Alabama in 1939 and grew up listening to a smorgasbord of music. Blues, jazz, polka, and country all entered Evans’s ears early in his life, and he enjoyed it all. At the urging of his brother, he started learning stand-up bass in high school. Later, jazz legend (or shaman, depending on your opinion of his unconventional beliefs) Sun Ra took Evans on as his bass player, giving him his first experience in a prestigious jazz band.
After Evans played with Sun Ra and recorded his own album in a jazz trio, he finally joined Cadet Records as an arranger in 1967. He was given full control over musical arrangements, which artists he signed, and which artists he fired. This control was given in an effort to allow Evans to incorporate more modern, psychedelic recording techniques. His work with Marlena Shaw, Dorothy Ashby, Soulful Strings, and Woody Herman (with whom he cut a Grammy-nominated album in a staggering 2.5 hours) helped achieve that goal.
Honestly, the Spotlight should be on Evans and his incredible arrangement of “Somewhere in the Night.” If Marlena Shaw vocally mixes the best of jazz and soul, Evans does the same with his arrangements. The rhythm section is lean, with typical tight 60’s soul drums and warm bass that strikes a perfect balance between a rigid walking bass line and a looser, more bouncy, soulful style . With the foundation functioning mostly as a perfect soul tune, Evans adds more jazz-inspired elements elsewhere. Vibraphone, piano, clean jazz guitar, and flute provides the harmonic shell of the song. Their combined textures compliment Marlena Shaw’s jazzy vocal melody.
At the one minute mark Evans takes over the show completely, writing in what I consider the most tasteful flute solo I’ve ever heard. The rhythmic interaction between the breathy, swaggering flute, the thick bass, and the snappy drum set is a striking example of the precise musical beauty of late-60’s soul music. If you don’t feel anything when that flute takes the lead, you probably aren’t listening closely enough.
“Somewhere in the Night” is a product of the centralized talent available at soul record labels in the 1960’s. According to Evans, a single could be brainstormed, written, recorded, produced, and distributed to stores over the course of one week. This process required raw talent to run smoothly. Chess and Cadet records had extremely gifted resident arrangers like Richard Evans and Charles Stepney. Artists like Marlena Shaw simply needed to add finishing touches on already impeccably put-together songs. With “Somewhere in the Night,” Shaw and Evans show off their combined talents, which overlap perfectly. Clocking in at 2:22, the compact and uplifting nature of the song makes it repayable, especially if you listen to it while walking. The tempo is perfect for a brisk stroll. The instrumentation makes it hard not to feel like you’re the star of your own very classy music video. Light a cigarette for added effect.*
While “Somewhere in the Night” was originally a big band jazz instrumental theme for the late-50’s/early 60’s T.V. show Naked City, the Shaw/Evans version I’ve Spotlighted has decidedly more energy and, obviously, soul. Listen to Marlena Shaw’s “Somewhere in the Night” HERE
*TheHealthyAlternative does not condone smoking, that was just to use imagery to illustrate the general vibe the song gives off.
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