Janet Planet brings a trio to the Brink Lounge on April 10.
It’s hard to forget a name like Janet Planet. And it’s just as hard to forget her smooth, hearty voice.
Based in Oshkosh, Planet has been a mainstay in the Wisconsin jazz scene throughout her roughly 30-year career. After several years away, Planet is set to return to our area for the Madison Music Collective’s annual fundraiser April 10 at the Brink Lounge, alongside Milwaukee’s Manty Ellis.
Although Planet’s brand of music might fall under some nominal umbrella of “smooth jazz,” she resists the label. “I don’t like to call it jazz,” she explains. “We’re a conduit for helping people feel.”
Her voice is simple, elegant and backed by refined instrumentals that mingle for luxurious listening — including the most urbane rendition of “Deep in the Heart of Texas” you’ve ever heard. Her voice conveys an easy confidence that is strong and emotional in all the right measures, but sometimes all but disappears into floating, ethereal tones, like smoke curling through the air.
A self-declared hybrid musician, Planet plays a mix of jazz and blues, plus arrangements of work from familiar musicians. For example, Planet and a large-group band reimagine works from a renowned American singer-songwriter for her latest release, Janet Planet Sings the Bob Dylan Songbook Vol. 1.
Planet has recorded 25 albums, won numerous Wisconsin Area Music Industry Awards and was the second woman inducted into the WAMI Hall of Fame. (Coincidentally, Ruby Starr was the first.) And she’s managed it all as a completely independent artist.
“We were indie before indie was indie,” Planet jokes. But it’s true. Since the mid-1980s, she and her band have been in charge of their own arranging, marketing and — through Planet’s Stellar Sound Productions — recording, too. When not recording and performing, she teaches jazz at Appleton’s Lawrence University, holds private music lessons and teaches yoga.
At this point in her life, she says, educating others is a huge priority, which makes her a perfect fit for this fundraiser for Madison Music Collective, a local organization focused on expanding musical performances, collaborations and knowledge.
Planet is bringing her trio to the Brink Lounge — guitarist, bassist and drummer — and plans to resurrect some older compositions written by Grammy nominee Chris Swansen for the group. They’ll go in with a game plan, she says, then “add or subtract” from the set list to fit the mood. “We just try to lift and enhance people’s lives.”
