Nite Bjuti: Minwi

When Nite Bjuti  (pronounced Night Beauty), Candice Hoyes, Mimi Jones, and Val Jeanty  take to the stage, the surrounding air is charged with energy and anticipation. The trio conjures voices that invoke their ancestral past, and those voices guide them and help to shape and change the future. On Minwi, (Haitian Creole for midnight), Nite Bjuti channels that raw kinetic energy into a highly charged musical experience, an experience that reveals something different to the listener each time they hit play.

Their approach is deeply influenced by author Octavia Butler and her famous quote from Parable of the Sower:

"All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change."

That ideology is central to the trio's spirit and their approach to creating music. Hoyes does not sing the same thing twice; the lyrics are not so much written as they are conjured voices from the past, called on as the vibrations in the room move her to do so. Jones' bass throbs and flows around the words and weaves together with the percussion and turntablism of Jeanty, who in turn can electronically manipulate it all and send it back out into the room, changed.

That change is not a disruption of the composition; it is the composition. Constantly evolving, shifting, and metamorphosing, the band reacts, turns, pivots, and transforms in real time. As they move forward, the change remains the only constant. The music they create refuses to be easily categorized. Is it jazz? Is it a spiritual invocation? Is it free improvisation or experimental soundscapes? It is never just one; it is all simultaneously.

Nowhere is this approach more effective than on "Wombfire," a collaboration with legendary flutist Nicole Mitchell, who is also heavily influenced by Butler's writings and Afrofuturistic view. Mitchell's gorgeous flute adds another intoxicating ingredient to the trio's already potent sonic alchemy. Floating above and weaving together with Hoyes' vocals, they produce a dreamlike state of bliss, one that is both calming and reassuring. A full-length collaboration between these four visionaries will hopefully one day materialize, because it would make for an outstanding album.

In Haitian folklore, Minwi is a sacred hour; it is the period of night when boundaries no longer exist and communication with the spirit world becomes possible. Nite Bjuti taps directly into this sacred space, summoning the voices that help to shape this new magical world alongside them.