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Janiva Magness is one of the most talented and recognized blues vocalists
in the world today. A three-decade darling of the blues genre,
Janiva currently resides at the top of the industry.
In May 2007, Janiva won her second consecutive Blues Music Award
for Contemporary Female Artist of the Year beating out contemporaries
Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland and Marcia Ball.
Janiva is also nominated for the 2008 Blues Music Award for the
B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award.
Billboard writes “Magness carves out a niche by singing
the blues with maturity and sophistication."
Singer Magazine writes “Her voice is sultry, smoky and
strong with jazz, blues, and soul textures enveloping it.”
Although her vocals are at times beautiful, Janiva is best known
for her sauciness and the bold, brazen beauty of her recordings
and performances. Janiva is known for paying homage to controversial
and rule breaking women before her like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith
for fearlessly embracing their age, their sexuality, and truth.
Janiva was barely a teenager when she was consumed by the power
and expression of rhythm and blues from the radio stations of
her hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Janiva’s influences include
Etta James, Billie Holiday, Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Aretha
Franklin, Jackie Wilson, Memphis Minnie & Koko Taylor - some
of whom she has since shared stages with and drawn comparisons.
In addition to being an outstanding vocalist, Janiva Magness
is a favorite on the North American and European festival circuit.
Los Angeles’ NPR affiliate KCRW FM says “…you're
gonna get knocked out by what you hear. I recommend you go SEE
and HEAR Janiva Magness.” Fellow genre leader Charlie Musselwhite
says “Janiva Magness always knocks me out because she has
such style and poise on stage and she hits every note she sings
just right - perfect every time."
Janiva’s vocals and stage presence expanded beyond the clubs,
venues and festivals in 2003, when she played the lead character
in the west coast edition of the Tony-nominated Broadway production
"It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues", which ran at the David
Geffen Theater in Los Angeles.
Janiva has provide vocals to Brian Setzer, Jimmy Buffett, the
late R.L. Burnside, both former Fabulous Thunderbird guitarists
Kid Ramos and Kirk ”Eli” Fletcher, and many others.
Although singing has always been natural for Janiva, her early
life’s path was not rosy. Early in life she lost both parents
to suicide. Shortly after came 12 foster homes in two years. At
16 Janiva became an emancipated minor with chemical dependencies
and a teenage mother putting her baby up for adoption. Turmoil
was a daily part of her young life.
At 14 Magness found salvation in the form of a blistering blues
guitarist named Otis Rush. On a winter’s night hitchhiking
across Minneapolis, she ended up a the Union Bar and paid $2 to
get in the door.
She explains “He just blew my mind. He made me feel things
I didn’t know what to do with. The music spoke to parts
of me that had never been addressed. It opened up some other place
in me, like letting oxygen into a sealed crypt for the first time.”
The enlightened teenager started hitting blues shows throughout
the Minneapolis/Chicago/Detroit triangle. Johnny Copeland and
Albert Collins became favorites as did the early funk and R&B
of the thriving local scene including one particular emerging
artist who called himself Prince – long before he took the
city’s sound nationwide.
As with the beginning of the music itself, Janiva started listening
to and singing the blues for catharsis. After discovering she
could sing not only for healing but to get paid, she went to work
as a backup vocalist working frequently with Sounds of Blackness
member Joanne Hollis. Eventually, she landed in the sunnier Phoenix,
Arizona and took up a mentor in Bob Tate, Sam Cooke’s legendary
and long-time musical director. The first band she assembled in
Phoenix was named as the town’s Best Blues Band.
Janiva never forgot her troubled past and dedicates time outside
her life as a musician. Today, Janiva Magness is also the official
spokesperson for National Foster Care Month, taking over for producer
and artist extraordinaire Pharell.
Janiva continues to tour behind her seventh album and sophomore
release for NorthernBlues Music entitled ‘Do I Move You?’
In December 2007 she returned to the studio to record her eighth
album to be released on Alligator Records.
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