Vahn Black: Celebrating Gladys Bentley

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

Vahn Black is a vocalist based in Atlanta, and in this episode we focused on her project celebrating Gladys Bentley, including Vahn’s fantastic album Petrichor. Born and raised in Detroit, Vahn grew up in a melting pot of music and this aided her in cultivating her soul-charged, jazz infused sound, marrying her reverence for vocalists like Sarah Vaughn with her love of producers like J Dilla. We talked about her musical education, her career path, her research into Black history and culture, her joy of collecting vinyl and some of her other creative outlets. It was interesting to hear about her contrasting experiences with work, life and music in Detroit, New York and Atlanta.

As a composer Black has lent her artistry to various art mediums from short films to interactive performance art. In 2023 she was selected to perform at NPR's Tiny Desk on the Road Tour stop in Atlanta, and for those listeners who are fans of Vahn Black and those who are discovering her, I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation which is punctuated with her music.

Vahn Black Website: https://www.vahnblack.com/about

Vahn Black's Care Too Much video NPR submission: https://youtu.be/B09NXWSoSWc?si=_f3SeS18fgN_MLB6

The transcript and video version of the podcast are linked here on my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/vahn-black

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:36) Gladys Bentley project

(10:58) intro to Too Soon from Petrichor

(12:13) live version Too Soon

(16:33) Detroit, Atlanta, finding her place and people

(20:20) The City from Temporary Colors

(23:20) Detroit, Atlanta, studying Classical music at Detroit School of Arts

(26:16) please support this series and sign up for my newsletter

(26:57) inspiring music teachers Connie Malabed and Cheryl Valentine

(29:08) studying Library Science, AI

(31:46) undergrad experience

(33:43) NPR Tiny Desk Block party

(35:22) Care Too Much

(40:05) Trunino Lowe arrangements, recording spirituals

(41:36) Vinyl collection

(50:55) Gladys Bentley project

(51:45) Lucid Dreams

(55:54) Gladys Bentley project next albums, different inspirations

(59:47) career path choices

(01:02:05) creative outlets crocheting, creative process