I arrived in Bloomington in August of 1999, having driven north from dead-center o’ the Florida Keys (Marathon, Florida — don’t let all the boats fool you: a drinking town with a fishing problem) intending only a brief stay here in my mother’s hometown. I caught WFHB’s signal just north of Bedford. I listened to a brilliant writer named Arbutus Cunningham tell a story about falling in love with strangers on a plane. When she finished falling in love, I was in love with the town. 

Janiece’s talent allowed her to unravel the threads of time and musical boundaries “with a unique grace and elan.” | Photo courtesy of the Jaffe/Reardin Family

My brief stay turned into 24 years this month, and by 2003, WFHB had introduced me to other local luminaries who’d eventually become cherished friends and collaborators — among them, writer/musicians Michael White, Carrie Newcomer, Malcolm Dalglish, Art Heckman, Tom Roznowski, Kevin “Kid Kazooey” McDowell, and a fearless improvisational jazz vocalist named Janiece Jaffe. 

When I first met Janiece in person, she took me by surprise as I wandered into Airtime, the studio where we both recorded. In the middle of nowhere, miles north of town, I first beheld her dressed in brilliant swirls of orange and yellow, like a sunflower nestled in a circular arrangement of singing bowls, percussion instruments, and sea shells she’d brought from home. 

Listening to her vocally improvise with the objects would change the way I thought about the hard lines of melodic composition. I likely wouldn’t have considered conversation with a giant conch the central motif of a folk song, and if I had, I’d probably have been too chickenshit to try it. Like I said, she was fearless. Thus, inspirational.

She didn’t believe in safe, hard lines. What Janiece did believe in was unravelling the threads of time and musical boundaries, something her talent also allowed her to do with a unique grace and elan.

A Voice That Painted in Living Color

Janiece had a voice like T.C. Steele had a battery of brushes. Whether she crooned a wistful Hoagy Carmichael ballad or belted out an upbeat Motown classic, her delivery was always defined by skillful nuance, with raw authenticity at its core. She could conjure just the right tone in just the right way, in the ease that comes with being comfortable in one’s own skin — a condition rare amongst artists — and it shown through in performance just as much as that versatile velvety voice landed on the ear. We could all hear it. 

Krista says Janiece was “a fearless improvisational jazz vocalist.” | Photo courtesy of the Jaffe/Reardin Family

It’s no exaggeration to say that Janiece was the same on stage and off, devoid of contrivance or any constructed persona. On stage, her performances weren’t showcases of a performer’s technical skill. They were all-encompassing encounters, inviting audiences to settle in for a magic carpet ride of human experiences on the wings of a voice that could do everything from fly you to the moon and back, and then over the rainbow and on through some enchanted evening.

Out of the spotlight, she saw a friend in nearly every face she encountered. Empathetic and intuitive, she could musically channel the emotional landscape of a stranger in Kroger as easily as her own — and sing it back to him with a gently piercing insight that might startle in how close to home it would land. Because, in the truest sense, her entire life was that of a tone poet in tempera. 

If you asked any of her four children — all musicians themselves — they’d tell you that childhood with Janiece was more or less like living within the lines and notes of a musical score. “Growing up, our house was full of music. When we cooked, when we were having fun or being silly … you could always hear mom practicing, or harmonizing with the track we were listening to,” recalls her oldest daughter, Julia Reardin. 

She notes that the musical legacy extends further back: “When Janiece was a child, they would have ‘opera nights’ at the dinner table where no one was allowed to speak … just sing. So, guess what would happen if someone needed the salt?” 

A family portrait, brushed in oils on a canvas of laughter, love, and spilled milk.

“Growing up, our house was full of music,” says Julia Reardin, Janiece’s oldest daughter. Janiece with her children (l-r): Chip Reardin, Julia Reardin, Janiece Jaffe, Jurion Jaffe, and Celina Jaffe in 2011. | Photo courtesy of the Jaffe/Reardin Family

Collaborations That Ignited Magic

Janiece intuitively understood the power of harmony. Her artistic journey was powerfully informed by countless collaborations — in and outside of Bloomington — each partnership an act of musical alchemy. She was a uniquely generous and catalytic artist whose collaborations recurred over decades and whose memories will be cherished forever.

Her musical conversation with jazz pioneer Monika Herzig began in August of 1991, when they were both students at IU. Then and there, palpable gravitational forces slung them into each’s other creative orbits for years to come. “It was her first week as an undergraduate coming to school after running a daycare to fulfill her dream to study jazz,” the founder of the Sheroes combo says. “It was my first week as a doctoral student in jazz and music education.”

Over the next three decades, Jaffe and Herzig shared the stage countless times, Jaffe’s swirling vocals seamlessly intertwined with Herzig’s expressive piano melodies. 

The fusion the duo created captivated and enthralled. Their performances transcended the stage, becoming emotive dialogues that bridged the gap between artist and audience ultimately — Janiece’s specialty.

Janiece’s “musical conversation” with jazz pioneer Monika Herzig began in 1991, when they were both students at IU, and it continued for the next three decades. | Photo by Sarah Jensveld Slover

Beyond the piano keys, her horizons also expanded in collaboration with the lauded Brazilian jazz guitarist and composer Marcos Cavalcante. Their pairing was a showcase for her adaptability to increasingly complex musical structures and her blossoming improv sensibilities. Together, they ignited unforgettable performances that celebrated the cultural exchange and universal language of longtime musical friends. 

In Bloomington, Janiece also partnered with beloved guitarist/vocalist Curtis Cantwell-Jackson, an exploration built heavily upon Janiece’s love of audience interaction. The two would often create entire songs out of five-word audience prompts. We all loved watching the ease of these creations, as words flowed into melody, flowed into song. The duo could be seen entertaining all over the city, as well as in Cantwell’s Motown Review, a tribute band that played the party and bar circuit and always guaranteed a great time. Janiece’s last trio, Davida, was a jazz group which included Chicago guitarist David Gulyas and Bloomington bassist David Bruker. It was yet another beautiful catalyst for Janiece’s written and improvisational work. Davida played consistent neighborhood performances during the pandemic lockdown, and kept community spirits up when the world was so very quiet. 

Music, to Janiece, was always a matter of elevating the spirit.

From Stage to Studio: the Spiritual Side, and a Legacy in Music Beyond Notes

At Airtime Recording Studio, Janiece and Producer/Engineer David Weber (full disclosure: my most intimate collaborator in all things) would create two evocative, improvisational albums, flowing out of the shells-and-bowls setup in which I first encountered her: The Lotus & The Rose (2003), and Heartsongs (2006). The albums were beautiful, tonal contemplations of the natural and spiritual world, inspired by Janiece’s Buddhist background and Reiki practice, coupled with David’s love of soundscape and waveform. 

Decades of friendship and inspiration resulted in the “inspired interpretation” of the works of Joni Mitchell, “Both Sides of Joni,” by longtime musical partners Monika Herzig and Janiece Jaffe.

Her legacy album with longtime musical partner Monika Herzig, Both Sides of Joni, dropped this year on March 31st. Three-plus decades of friendship and inspiration resulted in this inspired interpretation of the works of Joni Mitchell. When Janiece passed unexpectedly in November of 2022, the album was completed, and tour dates were set. Herzig’s lauded band Sheroes performed the work with guest vocalists throughout Europe and the U.S. in 2023. It garnered critical acclaim and incredible response, embraced by audiences across the globe. 

“Janiece called me in the summer of 2020 and told me that she had listened to Sweet Bird the night before and gotten into an interpretation conversation — she felt that Joni’s words would be important for everyone to hear during the Pandemic times for thoughts and healing,” Herzig says. “But she wanted me to do jazz arrangements so we can hear the words in a new context — ‘We heard them [the words], but we didn’t really listen’ — is what she said.” 

We’re listening now, Janiece. So many of her collaborators, friends, and fans will celebrate her legacy at a tribute concert coming up — but her legacy is more than the notes she sang. Her legacy is in the life she lived, and the people she touched; in the eternal sunflower, in the studio and on her farm, in the family and community she gave her life and love to. It’s in the fearlessness with which she responded to inspiration and in her refusal to give in to despair, even when life presented her plenty of reasons. It’s forever in the smile that met us every time we saw her. The one that said, “I’ve missed you. How have you been?” 

“

Sacred codes reveal your birth, on that you can rely

roots are reaching in the earth to hold you to the sky, little sunflower

” 

—Janiece Jaffe