Val Jeanty

Val Jeanty (Val-Inc)
Also known as Val-Inc.
Origin Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Genres Afro-Electronica
Electronica
Free improvisation
Avant-garde jazz
Occupation(s) Music Producer, Turntablist, Drummer
Instruments Music Producer, DJ, Turntablist, Drummer
Years active 1998 - present
Associated acts Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Mat Walerian, Craig Taborn

Val Jeanty also known as Val-Inc is a Haitian electronic music artist, living and working in New York City.

Early years

Great grand niece of Haitian composer, pianist & music director fr:Occide Jeanty, granddaughter of a Mambo (Vodou priestess), the drummer and sound engineer has created a distinctive style of music called Vodou electronica which she also refers to as Afro Electronica. Her music is a fusion of electronics and African Vodou rhythms.

Growing up in Bizoton Fontamara, Haiti, Val Jeanty attended Sacré Cœur which she describes as "a prestigious Catholic school, in a ritzy-bourgeois area" with strict rules.[1]

On her music, Jeanty says: "I use these electronic tools, but the music is spiritual—something you might hear at church, or in any other religious ceremony. It's the kind of sound that gives your spirit freedom to roam. The sound is definitely on a frequency people are not used to hearing. But it speaks to them. It takes them to another sphere."[1]

Career

Jeanty issued her first album in 2000 thanks to a Van Lier Fellowship and has exhibited at the Village Vanguard and in Italy. Jeanty grew up in Haiti but moved to the United States in 1986, after the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier.[2]

She has performed at the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, and internationally at music festivals in Austria and Switzerland. In the documentary film The United States of Hoodoo, she speaks about the relationship between sound and spirituality.[3]

Jeanty's installations have been showcased in New York City at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Village Vanguard and internationally at Saalfelden Music Festival in Austria,[4] Stanser Musiktage in Switzerland,[5] Jazz à la Villette in France,[6] and the Biennale Di Venezia in Italy.[7]

In 2002, she was chosen by poet Tracie Morris as the sound engineer for her poetry installation at the 2002 Whitney Biennial. The two edited the poems down with sound software at Jeanty's home studio to accommodate the venue's requirements. They recorded the poems in a vestibule between two rooms in Jeanty's apartment.[8]

In 2011, she was commissioned by Wesleyan University's Center for the arts to collaborate with Dr.Gina Athena Ulysse on Fascinating! Her resilience a multimedia performance which explores the various meanings assigned to the word resilience in western conceptualizations of Haitians post-earthquake.[9]

In 2014, she collaborated with afro-Cuban bassist de:Yosvany Terry on his album "New Throned King" (5Passion), contributing samplings of vodou ceremonies.[10] She was also the sound designer for the off-off-Broadway production Facing Our Truth: 10-Minute Plays on Trayvon, Race and Privilege presented by the National Black Theater in February 2014.[11]

Sound Engineering

  • The Cutting Room - intern (1998-1999)
  • Sound on Sound - sound assistant (1999-2000) [12]
  • Temple of Soul - sound engineer (2000-2002)

Theater work

Discography

As leader

Release year Title Label Catalog Band/Personnel
2007 On[13] Val-Inc Digital Album - Bandcamp Val Jeanty

As sound engineer

Release year Title Label Catalog Band/Personnel
2000 No Room For Argument Stretch Records SCD-9033-2 Wallace Roney
2002 Whitney Biennial 2002 Whitney Museum Of American Art ISBN 0-8109-6832-0 Various
2004 Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace Pi Recordings PI10 Wadada Leo Smith & Anthony Braxton
2006 Zodiac Suite: Revisited Mary Records M104 The Mary Lou Williams Collective with Geri Allen, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, Andrew Cyrille
2017 This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People ESP-Disk ESP 5011 TOXIC Mat Walerian Matthew Shipp William Parker

As sideman

Release year Title Label Catalog Band/Personnel
2005 Mystikal HighNote HCD 7145 Wallace Roney
2007 Jazz HighNote HCD 7174 Wallace Roney
2014 New Throned King 5Passion SP-025 Yosvany Terry
2015 The Mosaic Project: Love And Soul Concord Records CRE-37779-02 Terri Lyne Carrington

As writer/arranger

Release year Title Label Catalog Band/Personnel
2005 No Room For Argument Stretch Records SCD-9033-2 Wallace Roney
2007 John P. Parker: Viewed from 9 Dimensions Tricky Dilemma 4077 Tricky Dilemma

References

  1. 1 2 Ulysse, Katia. "A Lady Named Val-Inc: VFH InnerView". Voices from Haiti. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Chambers, Seve. "Val-Inc Brings Haiti to a Bed-Stuy Studio". The Local --Fort Greene. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Harvey, Sylvia (2013-03-06). "Big Apple Vodou". Narrative.ly. Narratively. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  4. ↑ http://www.jazzsaalfelden.com/en/
  5. ↑ Stanser Musiktage https://www.stansermusiktage.ch
  6. ↑ http://www.jazzalavillette.com
  7. ↑ "Val Jeanty". BANFF Centre. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Tracie Morris (July 9, 2007). Rankine, Claudia; Sewell, Lisa, eds. American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 213–215. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "Fascinating! Her Resilience". Wesleyan University. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  10. ↑ Blumenfeld, Larry (June 23, 2014). "Cubans with a New York Twist". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  11. ↑ BWW News Desk. "National Black Theatre Presents FACING OUR TRUTH: 10 MINUTE PLAYS ON TRAYVON, RACE AND PRIVILEGE, Now thru 2/10". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. ↑ http://www.soundonsound.com
  13. ↑ https://val-inc.bandcamp.com/releases
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