Janiva Magness

Whether Magness is belting out the number one track “I’m Just A Prisoner” on her album Do I Move You? or performing the song onstage, she exhibits raw emotion that can only come from a singer who has experienced heartache and pain. That pain came early in life with twelve foster homes in a two years span of time while she was a teenager. That experience was coupled with a teenage pregnancy and chemical dependency also in her teen years. She is also the first to admit that earlier in her career she was “well experienced in relationships.”

“I don’t believe there can be great joy unless there is great pain or a high price. The early part of my life was difficult. In some ways it was an early ticket price to access that part of me that I try to let come through the music,” Magness says.

Magness can be seductive, sassy, vamp like, and in your face when she is on stage. Sitting across from her one moment, she is thoughtful and thought provoking, another she is coarse and opinionated. There is one thing that she can always be accused of however and that is her ability to be completely honest not only with her conversation but in her music. There is an authenticity to her music that is true to the roots of blues and early jazz music. That ability to be transparent often missing from many of today’s artists is what no doubt gave rise to two previous nominations for the same coveted blues award that she received this year.

“I am a singer, a vocalist and a person who tells stories with melody,” says Magness, “It is about the story for me but it is also really about accuracy and truth. You can have the greatest chops in the world but if the story that you are trying to tell doesn’t have a piece of your own truth to it then it isn’t going to mean anything. It isn’t going to move people and it isn’t going to move me.”

Continuing to talk about songs that move her Magness says, “There are a lot of songs that do that for me otherwise I would be in big trouble when I am looking for material. That’s what I look for. I look to be moved by the tune and that doesn’t have to be in a particular genre. For me it tends to be in blues. Occasionally I will stray away from blues, R&B and Memphis soul into some very early jazz material.” She adds that she favours the music from the Roger Young and Billie Holiday era more than today’s jazz. It is not a comment on the quality of the music but just personal preference.

It is fitting then that the title of Magness’ current CD is Do I Move You? The title has its origins in the Nina Simone song of the same name. Magness recorded “Do I Move You?” for this album. She sings “Do I move you, are you willin’/Do I groove you, is it thrillin’/Do I soothe you, tell the truth now/ Do I move you, are you loose now/The answer better be (Yes, yes)/That pleases me.” She sings with such conviction that male listeners will be shouting, ‘yes, yes.'

October 2006