Background
J'ai Janett Michel was first called Sweet Baby by her mother, who claimed she was the sweetest child ever born. The nickname stuck. Born to Helen and John T., J'ai grew up in Kansas City. At only five years old, she was already writing songs and by the age of eight, sneaking in the backdoors of clubs on 18th & Vine to watch her father play with top jazz musicians. Her uncle, Vernon Gower was a bassist with Billie Holiday and Lionel Hampton and her cousin Michael Howell, was the guitarist with Dizzie Gillespie.
By age ten she had started classical piano studies and by twelve she had switched to violin. She played bass in high school and some guitar in college until she got her hands on a 12 string and couldn't figure it out. When she spent some time in Louisiana with relatives she came across an old back porch band playing washboard, spoons, tubs, and combs. According to J'ai, "All sorts of wonderful sounds were coming out of them. They were playing jug or Zydeco music, but I heard the transition to jazz!” As one critic pointed out, “This ain't no backyard hoe down…she will have you swooning before the concert is over.”
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