Dozzy Njava

Once upon a time on the far away island of Madagascar, a woman gave birth to her twelfth child. The neighbours were delighted to hear the news and came over bearing gifts, inorder to share in the celebration. The neighbours were asking if the new arrival was the twelth child in the family and having heard the mother's reply several times as "oui, le douzième", the eleventh child, when asked the name of her new brother, replied "Doz" and so was born the nickname of Dozzy Njava. Being from a musical family, Dozzy started to play the guitar at the tender age of five, being helped by his brothers Narcisse and Lucien. Dozzy was heavily influenced by his brothers' record collection which included the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Wilson Pickett, Otis Reding, Ike and Tina Turner and other soul greats. Dozzy's first on stage appearance was at the age of ten when he performed with his brothers for the first time. By the age of eleven he was somewhat of a local hero and was regularly brought out on stage inorder to wow the audience with his guitar playing. He continued to perform in Madagascar until the late eighties when he moved to Europe inorder to further his musical career. By the early nineties he created the group NJAVA which was comprised of Dozzy and four family members. The group performed around the world to great acclaim and made two albums for EMI, entitled "Vetse" and "Source". After almost ten years together Dozzy disbanded the group and took to more guitar playing, production and writing. He wanted to explore the possibilities of the guitar and along with traditional Madasgascan open tunings, he found his own unique style. Today, Dozzy is involved in musical composition and production both for himself and other artists. Being born in Africa but living in the Western world, Dozzy considers himself to be a true Afrologist ... and what he has learned is to consider the true value of every point of view.