Val Jeanty

Val Jeanty (Val-Inc)
Background information
Origin Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Genres Electronica
Free improvisation
Avant-garde jazz
Occupation(s) Music Producer, Turntablist, Drummer
Instruments Music Producer, DJ, Turntablist, Drummer
Years active 2000 - present
Associated acts Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Mat Walerian

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

Early years

The granddaughter of a Mambo (Vodou priestess), she has created a distinctive style of music called Vodou electronica which she also refers to as Afro Electronica. Her music weaves in electronica and Haitian and African Vodou rhythms. 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.[1]

Growing up in Fontamara, Haiti, Val Jeanty attended Sacré Cœur which she describes as "a prestigious [C]atholic school, in a ritzy-bourgeois area" with strict rules.[2]

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."[2]

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.[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, Stanser Musiktage in Switzerland, Jazz à la Villette in France, and the Biennale Di Venezia Museum in Italy.[4]

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.[5]

In 2011, she was commissioned by Wesleyan University's Center for the arts to collaborate with Dr. Gina 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.[6]

In 2014, she collaborated with afro-Cuban bassist Yosvany Terry on his album "New Throned King" (5Passion), contributing samplings of vodou ceremonies.[7] 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.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Harvey, Sylvia (2013-03-06). "Big Apple Vodou". Narrative.ly. Narratively. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 Ulysse, Katia. "A Lady Named Val-Inc: VFH InnerView". Voices from Haiti. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Chambers, Seve. "Val-Inc Brings Haiti to a Bed-Stuy Studio". The Local --Fort Greene. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "Val Jeanty". BANFF Centre. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ "Fascinating! Her Resilience". Wesleyan University. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  7. ↑ Blumenfeld, Larry (June 23, 2014). "Cubans with a New York Twist". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  8. ↑ 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.


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