Janiva Magness

by Linda Seida
Blues vocalist Janiva Magness walked away from music a few times before she was able to accept it as her calling. Her support system of family and friends turned out to be not so supportive when it came to her career choice, and numerous discouraging comments chipped away at Magness' confidence. During one of these dark periods when she'd given up on pursuing a career in the blues, she shut herself away for 40 hours a week in an office for an entire year, plugging away at a regular job with a construction company, refusing to even enter a nightclub in the evenings. She would later describe her estrangement from music as "torture," and it was enough to convince her that she needed to persevere in her uphill struggle to claim the career she realized she wanted and needed. Her strength and perseverance paid off and she has gone on to win raves from fans and critics. Among the awards she has received are the B.B. King Award for Musical Excellence, which is conferred by Soundboard Magazine; the Jim Croce Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rhythm and Blues; and from New Times Magazine, the designation of Blues Band of the Year in the Arizona publication's Critics Choice Awards. The petite singer also won a spot in the 2000 edition of the calendar put out by the Tucson Blues Society.
In addition to her six CDs, Blues Ain't Pretty, My Bad Luck Soul, Use What You Got, Bury Him at the Crossroads, Do I Move You?, and What Love Will Do, she collaborated with Jeff Turmes on the Fat Head Records release It Takes One to Know One. She also collaborated on recordings with numerous other artists, including Kid Ramos, Catfish Hodge, Neal Casal, and Deacon Jones. A native of Detroit, MI, Magness later made Southern California her home base. After winning fans in concerts and nightspots there, she started appearing overseas. She has performed at the International Blues Festival held in 1999 in Lucerne, Switzerland, and the Rhythm & Blues Festival held the previous year in Peer, Belgium. She also starred in a production of Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, which was staged at the David Geffen Theater.