(Vocal Jazz, Soul, Blues) Janice DeRosa - La Vie En DeRosa.. - 2014, MP3, 320

Janice deRosa came to Paris in October 1990 as her to feature her paintings in an art show at the Galerie Medicis. the following summer after that exhibition, Janice was invited to take part in an international museum show on the Cote d'Azur. She had bought herself more time in Paris to paint, but according to Janice, her artisitic inspiration doesn't come from hours of isolated quiet reflection. "I'm not the type of person who likes to listen to the radiator clink," she says, "I like to be with the people." So, that led her to getting out into the Paris club scene. She began frequenting the jazz and blues clubs, and toward the end of the shows when the musicians were riding out the tail end of their whiskey buzz, she'd ask to sing a song. Slowly, she built up a rep around Paris and started getting her own gigs. Her popularity grew, and she crawled out of the small joints into the established Paris jazz venues. And she's been here ever since. This new album brings together Janice the painter and Janice the singer, as the album's cover art is a stylized self-portrait. When you ask Janice how Paris has influenced her music, and how it's different than playing music in New York City, she replied that all places are really the same to her.... striking is that her voice is that it's like a flame that hypnotizes rhythm & blues feeling deep down a special something you can’t deny when it grabs you- you can’t get away-seems to be an effortless natural sequel... Born in NY and raised in Harlem, she was the first American born to a family of refuges of the war "when there was a "Harlem", she was raised basking in jazz, blues & soul passionately. deRosa played piano at 5, sang in musicals at 8, picked up the guitar at 13, and created her own songs & groups in New York City. She learned the "meaning of the blues" when her father went out "for a pack of cigarettes and never came back" never called, wrote, or sent child support. "Whatever, it was the first man I ever loved..." By 14 she was selected to attend the highly prestigeous High School of Music & Art (the "Fame"school) where everyone is a star. Janice created the opportunities for her artistic discipline and visions. After dazzling audiences in her hometown New York City playing the big rock clubs, Janice started touring Europe alongside the Talking Heads and B52’s, and has continued recently headlining festivals in europe known as the "Diva of Blues" alongside her sister Divas such as DeeDee Bridgewater, Tania Maria, Cesaria Evora as well as Dr. Jon, Syl Johnson, Brian Eno, and Suzanne Vega….to mention a few!
deRosa has always had jazz and rhythm & blues running through her veins... it was in Paris at the beginning of the 90's that her "blues feeling" and her sensual scented voice fitted in with the West African music scene. Janice started working with African artists, recording albums such as "Afro Blues" (WEA) and "Aduna" (Next Music) that caused sensation in the French capital as well as on the radios in over 25 or so other countries. deRosa has been featured on TV & radio all over the world via satellite live in concert, interviews & the documentary by Didier Agostini's "Coup de Blues à Janice deRosa"(TV5). Her blues feeling and her affinity with soul remain the vital elements of her music that’s why Janice is really…something else!!