Blues Revue calls her "a blues interpreter of the highest rank...punchy and tough," with "swaggering, incendiary vocal performances." Janiva Magness has blues in her blood. She grew up in Detroit, surrounded by the Motown sound and listening to record after record of soul and R&B's greatest. Her early experience with suicides, homelessness, and teen pregnancy brought to light the realities of life.
These influences and an inspirational Otis Rush concert pushed Janiva to sing, and she took her career from background singer to one of B.B. King's Entertainers of the Year. She has thirteen albums to her name, including the Grammy-nominated Love Wins Again and is consistently pegged as a contemporary blues gold standard. Hear Janiva's appeals to emotion in every song from her JazzFest 2016 main stage performance at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls, presented by the Sioux Falls Jazz and Blues Society.