Marlena Shaw, ‘California Soul’ Singer, Dies at 81

Microphones and other equipment in a recording room in a file photo. Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

Marlena Shaw, the jazz and R&B vocalist whose “California Soul” was one of the defining soul songs of the late 1960s, has died. She was 81.

Shaw’s daughter, Marla Bradshaw, announced the singer’s death Friday in a video posted on Facebook. A cause of death was not given.