Jacnique Nina

Sultry, sensationally soulful, with class and style, Smooth Jazz artist, Jacnique Nina, is back on the scene with soulful ballads and electrifying, emotionally charged songs of empowerment.

Jacnique also continues to receive award after award. Ambi’ance Uncut sat down with this beauty for a glass of wine and some easy conversation.

Jacnique Nina, pronounced (Janeek Ne na) was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and has been in Los Angeles now for a little over eleven years working on her music. She was just recently nominated for six 2020 Los Angeles Black Music Awards, “Best R&B Performer Female ”, “ Best Original Song ” for her song, “ So Says The Fool ”, “ Best Live Performer Female ”, “ Best Neo Soul Artist ”, “ Best Jazz Performer Female ”, and “ Los Angeles Black Music Awards Entertainer of The Year ”. This year she was also 40 named the 2020 Akademia Music

“As much as evil tries to infiltrate our world, love will always prevail. God will always prevail.” —Jacnique Nina

Award Winner of the “ Artist Vision Award ”, a special honor bestowed upon artists of exceptional talent, originality and vision in the field of music. She also won the 2020 Akademia Music Award for “ Best Jazz Song ” for her single, “ So Says the Fool ”, as well as the very prestigious “ Executive Award ” to add to a full list of awards during her career. “I started singing just because I love to sing. When I was a child, my heroes were Diana Ross and Cher and I always felt like, wow, that is exactly what I want to be! However, I had no one around me that was doing that and no idea how to get into the business. So, it became like a little ‘secret dream’ of mine for the longest, until I was in high school. It was then that I met music producer Kenny M and

he recorded some demos on me, and that is how I got started.

As we talked, we mentioned one of Ambi’ance Uncut ’s favorite singles, “He’s A Keeper” and found that Jacnique and Preston Glass wrote it with Preston producing it. “I am so happy to hear that you guys love that song! Most of the songs on my “Wish of The Heart” album were written by me and Preston Glass who also produced the music. My Music Director, Rob Mullins, also contributed to that song. He is a phenomenal pianist, composer, producer, and arranger. It was just a blessing because we all contributed something special to that song and it always gets such a great reaction. So that’s awesome! I love it!

While chatting, it became evident that Jacnique has been in the music industry for a while as we perused her catalog of albums and singles. “Yes, I have just been doing my thing! Mostly in Los Angeles. I started around 2007 in my hometown of San Francisco and eventually started my own label. The reason I did that is because I had a lot of trouble trying to get projects completed.

Being a very beautiful woman, it was always difficult dealing with men in the business. After a at certain point, they wanted more than just business and I just wasn’t having it, ever. So, it just kept me starting and stopping, starting and stopping, starting and stopping projects without ever being able to complete them. With this issue always coming up, I just said, ‘You know what, I’m not doing this anymore. I will just take it into my own hands and start my own label, making me the boss and calling all the shots!’ So, in 2007, I started my label SirenFire Music Works and I later started my music publishing company, SirenFire Music Publishing.

I wanted to make an album that would literally bring more love into the world through it’s message in the songs I was still living in San Francisco at that time and had been blessed to marry an amazing man who was an awesome music producer and guitarist, Ricardo Love, who later produced my first album, ‘Trial by Fire’. We then moved to Los Angeles to really pursue music. Once we were in Los Angeles, we performed at a lot of poetry spots. The poetry spots were the coolest things happening at the time, and singers came there to perform and showcase their new songs.

I played in a lot of those shows. Any showcase I could get into, I was going...whether it was happening in Hollywood, the Rock venues, Inglewood, Leimert Park, Pasadena or wherever...there I was, singing some Neo Soul (laughing)! Doing the poetry spots, coffee shops, little showcases and anything else in-between was really a direction from God! Like, once I made that album, I just kept hearing God say, ‘You go out and you sing. Sing wherever you can sing, just go and sing!’ So, I just followed that, and I did it for like a good three to five years. We even had our daughter in between that time, and I still performed, while I was pregnant. After she was born, we took her everywhere with us just like the ‘Family Love’ out on the road all the time, singing, performing and sharing our music with people. We were really inspiring a lot of folks because we were married, we had this beautiful baby and Ricardo was a phenomenal guitarist. People loved my vibe and my voice. It was

just a magical experience! We continued to talk about love, relationships, marriage, children, heartaches and so forth before bringing the conversation back to music. Jacnique Nina enjoys covering the classic soulful hits of songstresses, Anita Baker, Sade, Minnie Riperton, Deniece Williams as well as artists such as Bobby Caldwell and Jill Scott, to name a few. Her stage presence of class and style are reminiscent of the sultry Phyllis Hyman and the aforementioned ladies as she is donning the stage 41

with her multiple octave range. We asked about her success with her lyric writing and found that she continues to pen a lot of her songs. “I’m still writing my lyrics. I did the first album called, ‘Trial by Fire’ and it won many awards, including The Los Angeles Music Award for ‘Producer’s Choice, Jazz Album of the Year’ in 2011. The Producer’s Choice Award had previously been won by amazing artists in other genres: No Doubt, The Black Eyed Peas, System of A Down and Sugar Ray. When I won that award, it really made me get a lot of attention very fast, and subsequently, I entered other awards. I also won two 2011 Los Angeles Black Music Awards, “Best Neo Soul Artist”, and “Best Urban Soul Artist”. In 2012, I was nominated for the Hollywood Music In Media Award for “Best Jazz Song” for my song, “Rise in Love”. I later won the Hollywood Music In Media Award in 2015 for my song “Sunrise”. I am extremely grateful for all of the awards I have won for my music. It has really been a super tremendous blessing to me. Every time I win one, I’m just floored and I say, wow, God, you did it again for me, thank you so much! My real goal is to win five Grammys in my lifetime. So, when I win these awards, I feel that it’s leading me to that as well. It’s really wonderful and inspiring for me.

As Jacnique talked about her accomplishments, we thought about the beginning of our conversation when Jacnique stated that she had secretly dreamed of being a singer 42 like her idols, Diana Ross and Cher. Now, she has been on this journey with awards and accolades doing the things that she loves, singing and writing. We wondered how she felt about all of this, people singing her songs, booking her to showcases at various venues, living her dream. “It’s unbelievably wonderful! I mean, I’ve worked so hard and I’m always so focused on my craft & marketing and doing all of this. When you’re grinding all the time and you don’t really get a chance to look up...It is so fantastic to receive an email that you’ve been nominated, or you’ve won. It just makes me cry! I’m like, WOW! It just stops me in my tracks and I say, “Lord, thank you, I know this is working”!

We understand that you are working on a new project with Preston Glass. Tell us about that?

“Yes. I have set up a GoFundMe for this wonderful new project I am working on with Preston Glass. This project is entitled, “Love Speaks”. Preston also produced my album, “Wish of the Heart”, which was released and garnered international acclaim. In addition, it charted on several well-respected independent music charts here in the U.S and in Europe. That was a huge blessing, so we decided to do another album together. With this one, we talked about song titles and what I was feeling...what inspired me for this album. This was before the pandemic hit, maybe a little over a year ago. So, we started crafting the concept for this album and I was really feeling like love was getting lost in the world. People are just starting to be colder towards each other, you know. There’s a great deal of division, unjust things going on and hatred. These things do not coincide with love and being kind and nurturing towards one another and having compassion. It was really disturbing to me as a person because I am a very loving and kind person, you know, just mellow and I never really have a problem with anyone. I don’t spark that kind of emotion in people and I definitely don’t incite it. Anyway, I told Preston that I wanted to make an album that would literally bring more love into the world through it’s message in the songs. I wanted them to be various messages of love, different types of love, and I wanted it to be inspiring and promoting love. So, the album’s title is “Love Speaks”, and we have already recorded a few songs for this album. I also have some really big surprises that I can’t talk about yet regarding guest artists and one song in particular that is really special to me that I covered, and of course, I can’t talk about that either. (laughing) But it’s going to be absolutely amazing and that song alone may be the most important song. The album thus far has a message of love and bringing love back into the consciousness of humans and bringing love back into the world in a big way. I know that there’s a lot of other artists doing the same thing that I am, and I’m praying that collectively these messages of love through music really help to change the entire world atmosphere to one of love and compassion rather than what we’re seeing now. The

GoFundMe is helping to complete the production of this album and for the marketing campaign.

This project is already in motion, but there are a lot more monetary contributions required just to get the album fully produced, mixed and mastered. There is also the expense of radio campaigns for several songs on the album. So, this GoFundMe is to breathe life into this project, to bring it forth and to really get it out into the world in a big way!

Ambi’ance is a firm believer that when you are working in your destiny, the way will be there. So, we don’t see your album not coming to fruition. The fact that you stepped out on your own, developed your own label, earning yourself award after award, while making these moves under His guidance and direction, speaks volumes of your faith, your passion and resilience, and again, we support and believe in you! While speaking her future into the atmosphere, we learned that not only does Jacnique have the project, ‘Love Speaks’ in the works, but she has been in the studio working on other songs as well! “I have several singles coming out. One really electrifying single just came out on August 27th, called, ‘Quiet Danger’, featuring the beautiful jazz singer, Talita Long. This single speaks about what’s going on in the world today and recognizing that all of this division and hatred really is a ‘Quiet Danger’ to our world and if we are not careful, and we don’t pay attention and do something about it (like speak up and vote), we will all be destroyed. That is the powerful message in that song. I also have a cover of Bobby Caldwell’s, ‘What You Won’t Do for Love’ which came out on October 15th and a contemporary Christian song called, ‘Chains’ which has been getting a lot of reaction around the world. I am really blessed by that because I am a Christian and I love the Lord. That song in particular is about breaking the chains of things that are burdening you, holding you down and holding you back...taking up too much space in your mind, soul and heart. We need God to heal those situations. My song, “Chains”, is kind of a chant and the chant is so powerful. People that hear it and are going through something...I believe that they can immediately connect with the message in this song because it is very empowering, and I meant for it to have that effect. I wrote this while I was going through something and it blessed me in so many ways, so I know it will be a blessing to others. It was produced by my ex-husband, Ricardo Love, and ‘Quiet Danger’ and “What You Won’t Do for Love” was produced by Preston Glass. I also have another single coming out in November, entitled “Go”. It was produced by Ricardo Love. It’s a different vibe for me because it’s a little more of a pop vibe, but it’s also kind of a singer/songwriter. All of these songs can be heard on my website, www.jacniqueninamusic. com as well as on my www.soundcloud.com/jacniquenina Amazon Music, iTunes, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube Music, 7digital, 8tracks, Akazoo, Anghami, AWA, Deezer, Spotify, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Pandora and most of the digital music platforms where you will also find my music as well.

Ambi’ance Uncut: Well, our glasses are now empty, and it has truly been an honor and a pleasure sharing space and great conversation with you! Thank you, Jacnique, we love you and your music and are looking forward to celebrating with you as you achieve those Grammys!

Jacnique Nina: I love you guys too! It's been an honor for me as well, because Ambi’ance and Jonathan were one of the first publications to interview me, and I am so grateful that the chance has come up again for me to be interviewed now by Ambi’ance Uncut! I really love the publication and I'm so proud to be a part of this! Thank you so much!!

Please check out Jacnique Nina and follow her on all her platforms:

Facebook:

facebook.com/JacniqueNinaMusic

Twitter:

twitter.com/JacniqueNina

Instagram:

instagram.com/JacniqueNina

YouTube:

tinyurl.com/JacniqueNinaYoutube

LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/jacniquenina

ReverbNation:

reverbnation.com/jacniquenina 43