The Presence of ValLimar Jansen

By Nick Cardilino

Power. Passion. Presence.

Each time I have seen ValLimar Jansen perform, I was amazed by the power of her presence. Her full, strong, beautiful gospel voice permeated the huge spaces. She didn't just speak; she proclaimed. Her passionate presence on stage commanded attention. It drew people in to hear the Word of God in a new and deeper way. Honestly, I was a bit intimidated by her.

Yet, when we first met, she came up to me and introduced herself with the sweetest, gentlest voice. She was warm, welcoming and personable. She really made me feel at home, like we had been old friends for years. At first, her down-to-earth manner made me wonder if somehow I had her confused with someone else. But how many ValLimar's can there be?

I wondered how her powerful energy on stage and her gentleness in a one-on-one conversation could both be so genuine.

“It's amazing,” she told me on her way to do a couple of shows in Iowa, “how the Holy Spirit can make me invisible, even in front of 20,000 people, and allow people to feel they can be in God's presence. I really want to be a conduit for God to work through. I'm certainly not perfect, but I pray all the time that God will keep this conduit clean, so He can come through.” Then she gave me another metaphor: “I like to think of myself as a battery in a car. I'm not the car. I'm not the destination. But I do what I can as a battery.”

ValLimar has certainly been sparking a lot of electricity at the largest gatherings of Catholics in the U.S. lately. In the past year or so, she has performed, led liturgies, cantored and given workshops at the March for Life, the National Catholic Youth Conference, the L.A. Religious Education Congress, the National Pastoral Musicians Conference, and the National Conference of Catholic Youth Ministers. “Yet, the greatest thrill for me so far in performing,” she told me, “was last September in Loreto, Italy. It was such a blessing to perform at this event for 400,000 people and the pope!”

Her passionate presence has also been in high demand around the country. She’s been busy doing concerts supporting the new album “Anointing” that she and her husband, talented keyboardist/songwriter/arranger Frank Jansen, recorded. This CD was produced by Ted Perlman, who has worked with Elton John, Chicago, and many others. From hot, energetic dance mixes to prayerful, reflective arrangements, the album is a treasure from start to finish. ValLimar's soaring, soulful voice guaranteeds that this CD will get a lot of spins in a lot of CD players!

All but one of the songs on this uplifting CD are traditional spirituals with new arrangements by Frank and ValLimar. “Our goal for this CD was to update some of the greatest spirituals, so that they can influence a whole new generation.”

She found on her previous CD “You Gotta Move” that the traditional songs she covered had such power for today. “I decided to record 'I Want Jesus to Walk with Me' because it was about breaking free, a very important message for young people today. When I recorded the line 'Can you hear the hammer the ringing?' I wasn't only thinking and praying about the hammering of the nails of Jesus on the cross, but was also thinking about other hammers today—the hammer of a gun, the hammer of a difficult job, the hammer of a jail cell door. All those trials and tribulations are connected, and work to make this spiritual timeless.”

One of her favorite songs on “Anointing,” her second CD on the SpiritandSong/OCP label, is “Wade in the Water.” “It has a beautiful simplicity. My mom's second grade class sings it whenever I visit them. Plus, it has a lot of possibilities for liturgical use. This arrangement will work well for confirmations and baptisms, or whenever water is an important symbol.”

Confirmation is a very special sacrament to ValLimar, who was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1991 through the RCIA, and water is particularly important. “I love the moment when we become one with the rest of the Church throughout the world by making the sign of the cross and recalling the waters of baptism.”

ValLimar grew up in Louisiana in a Baptist Church, but in Louisiana, “Catholics and Baptists got along and shared a lot of commonality.” She was “raised in the church. My mom was very devoted.” And it didn’t take her long for her to hear God’s call to music ministry: “When I was five years old, I asked if I could sing. At first, they told me I was too young, but eventually, they let me sing 'In the Garden.' I was hooked!”

Not only does she pay homage on the new CD to the great tradition of African-American spirituals that she was raised on, but she also treasures the opportunity she had to sing “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” one of the most fun up-tempo tracks on the CD, with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. “Edwin Hawkins is such a down-to-earth guy. When we recorded the track, the singers were so well-rehearsed, so ready! Their harmonizing was so natural! They're all such beautiful people! You know, Edwin Hawkins is always asked to do 'O Happy Day,' the song that made him famous.” She laughed, “I think he was most happy to not have to do 'O Happy Day!'”

The one song on “Anointing” that is not traditional, but is certainly a spiritual, is Bob Dylan's “Gotta Serve Somebody.” “I was looking for a song that is a kind of a modern day spiritual,” she explained. “This one certainly works because of the style of the song and how it addresses the apathetic spirituality and secularism that is so prevalent in today's world.” Her powerful gospel voice and the arrangement she and Frank did make this song even more infectious and powerful than Dylan's original version.

On several of the tracks on this CD are some wonderfull spoken word parts. “Walk Together Children,” for example, intersperses some well chosen quotes from Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, Gandhi and Martin Luther King on social justice. “With the spoken word, we were trying to capture some of the live performance experience.” It's not surprising that the spoken word is so effective both live and on the CD: theatre has been and still is a very important part of ValLimar's ministry.

“In addition to the concerts, I'm also doing a one-woman show called 'Stormy Weather,' about the life of Ethel Waters. She was a fascinating woman. She began her life as a 'throw-away kid;' she was the product of a rape, and her mother treated her very poorly. But she ultimately became the highest paid woman on Broadway in the 1930's. She was the first one to sing 'Stormy Weather' at the world famous Cotton Club, and she became famous for it before Lena Horne made it a huge hit in the film of the same name. Ethel Waters eventually sang with the Billy Graham Crusade.” In the show, ValLimar not only acts, but also sings 14 songs and does three dance numbers. And she co-wrote it too!

Whether it's through drama, singing, dancing, or reading scripture, ValLimar's passion and gift is storytelling. Harcourt Religion Publishers just released her second DVD on storytelling. “I'm excited that they spent a good deal of money to make it really professional!” she says with a tone of surprise based on humility.

That's not all that's on the horizon. She and Frank have just finished recording their next project “Psalms from the Soul,” which should be available in time for the National Pastoral Musicians Conference. This one will feature a number of psalm settings for liturgical use that ValLimar and Frank wrote.

ValLimar will also be performing at the National Conference of Catholic Youth Ministers again this year, as well as keeping up with a full schedule of concerts and one-woman shows. If you have the opportunity to see ValLimar and Frank Jansen live, don't miss it. You cannot help but be moved to a deeper relationship with the Lord by the power and passion that shines through their ministry.

ValLimar is truly sacramental: whether it is in a big emotional moment in a performance, or in the unavoidable urge to dance to one of the songs on her CD, or in a quiet conversation with this faithful woman of God, each instance is an encounter with the real presence of Jesus.

For information on performances and recordings, check out www.spiritandsong.com/artists/vallimarjansen/.

Nick Cardilino is a Catholic recording artist in his own right. He co-wrote (along with David Smith) and recorded the winning theme song for the 2008 NCCYM conference, “Discover the Way.” He performed it with Smith at the conference, and this is how he met ValLimar Jansen. Visit Nick’s website at www.nickcardilino.com.

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