So great was her voice that even for those who lack any knowledge in Jazz or blues have come to hear her voice or at least her name while passing by a music store. That woman of long brown hair, small face, mischievous smile and enchanting eyes behind a pair of sunglasses caught my attention a pair of years ago. With curiosity as my sin, I tipped in youtube her name and became lost in her sultry voice.
She was born in January 19, 1943 in Texas. She was what nowadays an outcast for her strong beliefs against racism, took a liking to music probably from her own mother at the age of sixteen. I’d like to say she was an example setter for new generations, but I would be lying, she was just like any other teenager growing up looking for attention;She began singing in the local choir and expanded her listening to blues singers such as Odetta, Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton.
She found peace in Jazz, blues voices that rang from previous generations, and so she decided to become a singer in local bars. She gained a lot of weight still at school, and well kids can be cruel. She was taunted, mocked, pretty much bullied just because she didn’t go along with standards of society back in 1950’s.
She went to college but again didn’t fit as the rest, she was just being herself and for the rest it seemed like chaotic and something to be shunned about. She didn’t end her superior education because of her drug use and alcohol, weighting once 35k. Her friends decided to help her get cleaned and start over, starting with her moving back to Texas where she tried to become normal, she went back to school to study sociology, met a man who she started to date and was supposed to ask her hand in marriage but it turned out to be someone who wasn’t worth of her time and tired of waiting for him, she left for San Francisco where she started playing music and being herself. She joined the Big Brother and the holding company whom with she started her music career and became the legend we know…Janis Joplin
This video is actually from her first performance with The Big Brother and Holding Company, she gave the lucky audience a show to remember and talk to future generations.
Janis Jopling was truly a normal woman with an exceptional voice that lets you know that she has fallen and learned how to stand up on her own, a voice that tells of laugher, of tears, of love, of grieve but overall is a voice that has lived to its fullest.
Jazz8Blues 