-
Janiva Magness
Blues
Los Angeles, CA
Venue Address (Get Directions)
An Evening with Janiva Magness & The A Team 30 year Retrospect!Details
To celebrate her 30th Anniversary as a recording artist, Magness has launched a unique performance series. Each show’s setlist will contain a selection of Magness’ charting hits, her personal gems, and fan favorites that she has curated from her entire 15-album catalog.
These concerts hold an additional significance to Magness because 2021 also commemorates her 45th year of performing live - and it was her live shows where the powerhouse vocalist initially made her mark. As the LA Weekly proclaimed: "Magness is, after all, a badass on stage. A strong woman with a beaming smile, charisma for days and a voice that soars. She can hold a huge crowd in the palm of her hand and gleefully toy with it.”
Magness kicks off the performances in Seattle at the Jazz Alley August 3-4, then August 6 the Lounge at the End in Boise, Idaho. In October, she’ll be headlining Colorado Springs’ Blues on the Mesa Festival October 2, then doing a Performance Master Class October 3 at Mojo’s Music Academy in Longmont, Colorado. Magness also has shows set at Yoshi’s in Oakland on October 12 and in Santa Monica at McCabe’s on October 16. More dates are being added, so visit her website, www.JanivaMagness.com, for details and ticket information.
Magness’ excitement for this tour extends beyond it celebrating her two major career milestones. Backing her on these shows is her “A Team,” a group of musicians who have played with Magness for a number of years. This stellar quartet features guitarist Zach Zunis (Billy Boy Arnold, Red Devils), bassist Gary Davenport (Ann Peebles, Rufus Thomas), drummer Matt Tecu (Jakob Dylan, Fiona Apple, Beck), and Jim Alfredson (Thornetta Davis, Holmes Bros.) on the Hammond B3. Magness says that her most incendiary and intimate performances have been done with these guys, and “I want nothing less for my audience or myself .”
Following, what she describes as, “the longest time I’ve gone without performing” due to the Covid pandemic, Magness is wildly eager to be returning to the stage. “I’m excited to get back to live performances and that magical energy that circulates between the bandstand and the audience.” And she has found a wonderful way to express her thankfulness for being to do concerts again with these exclusive, from-the-heart shows.
Over the course of her heralded career, Magness has earned 29 Blues Music Award nominations and has taken home seven BMA awards, including the prestigious B.B. King Entertainment of the Year Award (she was just the second woman ever to win this honor). Her 2016 album, Love Wins Again, brought Magness a Grammy nomination for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year, while 2019 saw the publication of her inspirational, universally praised autobiography, Weeds Like Us. She has also been known for being a great interpreter of songs (her latest album, Change In The Weather, paid tribute to John Fogerty); however, her songwriter talents have emerged in recent years, notably with the aptly named album, Original.
