Val Jeanty, also known as Val-Inc, is a Haitian electronic music composer, turntablist, and professor at Berklee College of Music who evokes the musical esoteric realms of the creative subconscious self-defined as “ Afro-Electronica.” She incorporates her African Haitian musical traditions into the present and beyond, combining acoustics with electronics and the archaic with the post-modern. Jeanty is a pioneer of the electronic music subgenre Afro- Electronica also called " Vodou-Electro".

Early years

Jeanty is the great-grandniece of Haitian composer, pianist, and music director Occide Jeanty and granddaughter of GranMe Shoun

mambo Mambo most often refers to: * Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...

( Vodou priestess). Growing up in Bizoton

Fontamara '' Fontamara'' is a 1933 novel by the Italian author Ignazio Silone, written when he was a refugee from the Fascist Police in Davos, Switzerland. It is Silone's first novel and is regarded as his most famous work. It received worldwide acclaim ...

, Haiti, Jeanty attended Sacré Cœur. Jeanty left Haiti for the United States in 1986, when upheaval following the overthrow of then-president Jean-Claude Duvalier led to school closures.

Career

Jeanty issued her first album in 2000 thanks to a Van Lier Fellowship, and has performed at the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, and internationally at music festivals in Austria and Switzerland. Jeanty's installations have been showcased in New York City at

the Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, the

, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz ...

and internationally at Saalfelden Music Festival in Austria, Stanser Musiktage in Switzerland, Jazz à la Villette in France, and the

Biennale Di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in Italy. Poet Tracie Morris chose Jeanty as the sound engineer for her 2002 poetry installation at the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

. Morris and Jeanty worked in Jeanty's home studio, even recording the poems in a vestibule between two rooms. In 2011, Jeanty was commissioned by Wesleyan University's Center for the arts to collaborate with Dr. Gina Athena Ulysse on ''Fascinating! Her resilience'', a multimedia performance exploring the meanings assigned to the word "resilience" in Western conceptualizations of Haitians after the earthquake of January 2010. Jeanty speaks about the relationship between sound and spirituality in the 2012 documentary film ''The United States of Hoodoo''. In 2014, Jeanty collaborated with Afro-Cuban Saxophonist Yosvany Terry on his album ''New Throned King'' (5Passion), contributing samplings of vodou ceremonies. The same year, she was also sound designer for the National Black Theater's ''Facing Our Truth: 10-Minute Plays on Trayvon, Race and Privilege.'' Jeanty's most recent work is with Turning Jewels Into Water, a duo with Indian-born Ravish Momin. With influences including Vodou, Indian folk music, jazz, and electronica, Turning Jewels Into Water has been said to "actively decentre shallow, Westernized understandings of 'world' music", and their 2019 debut ''Map of Absences'' called "a place where the ritualistic origins of music and rhythm meet with the digital realm." Turning Jewels Into Water was also awarded a 2020 New Music USA grant. Their newest work, ''Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars'', was completed after the start of the pandemic, with the duo recording and sharing files at a distance.

Discography

As leader

As sideperson

As writer/arranger

As sound engineer

External links

A Lady Named Val-Inc: VFH InnerView
(VoicesfromHaïti)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeanty, Val Haitian artists Haitian women Haitian emigrants to the United States Haitian Vodou practitioners Haitian Vodou researchers 1970s births Living people Musicians from Port-au-Prince Haitian musicians Haitian DJs 21st-century women musicians Women in electronic music