Born June 28th 1945, Magni Wentzel began her career very early. She was only 5 years old when she sang in the Totenlaget Children's Theatre. She began to study guitar at the age of 11, and gave her first performance as a jazz singer as a 12-year-old. Her mother was a well-known singer of evergreens and her father was a violinist in the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Both of the took Magni along to their widely differing rehearsals before she was 3.

Magni with her mother Åse in 1957, at the same
time as her debut as a jazzsinger.

 

At the age of 18 Magni was accepted as a pupil at The Norwegian Opera School, but instead she chose to travel to Spain to study classical guitar. During this period she also performed as a jazz singer, singing with among others pianist Tete Montliu and saxophonist Pony Poindexter. She also studied guitar in Switzerland and in England. She recorded 2 LPs on Polydor as a guitarist and performed at home and abroad, on radio and TV.

Magni with TV-presenter Rolf Kirkvaag in 1958.

 

At the end of the 60s she was back on the Norwegian jazz scene. Club 7 in Oslo was a regular venue where she primarly sang rhythm and blues, mainly with her cousin Geir Wentzel and his band. It was he that introduced her to the genre and the music of Aretha Franklin. Ever since, Franklin has had a great impact on Magni as a jazz-singer.

A portrait of Magni Wentzel taken in 1970.

 

She has made regular tours of Norway and other countries, taken part in a number of TV and radio programmes abroad, as well as performing at festivals both at home and abroad. The countries she has visited are Czechoslovakia, India, Russia, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Spain and the USA.

Magni with Stan Getz at Metropol, Oslo 1959.

 

In 1978 she gave a guest performance at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in connection with an exhibition of Edvard Munch's paintings. In 1986 she was the soloist with the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra in "Concierto de Aranjuez" by J. Rodrigo. In 1991 she began her collaboration with Roger Kellaway. They made a CD along with bassist Red Mitchell: "New York Nights". In 1993 she made a CD together with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: "Come Away With Me". That year she also did a concert tour in the USA, among others with Roger Kellaway.

Magni with Oscar Peterson (ca. 1985).

 

Besides this she has given concerts where she has played classical guitar and sung both jazz and classical music. One of these was a performance of a work especially written for her: "Far, Far Away Where Longing Lives" by Peter Gullin. This concert took place in Uppsala in Sweden in 1990. She gave a similar concert in "The Old Masonic Lodge" in 1989 where she sang Wolf, Schubert, Verdi and Ciléa. She has also been linked to Opera Mobile, where as late as in 1992 she played the mother in "Tales of Hoffman". Opera Mobile has also utilized her in concerts.

Magni with guitarist John McLaughlin.

 

In 1998 Magni Wentzel received the "Buddy Award", the highest acclaim in Norwegian jazz.