Creating Story Through Sound with Composer Jongnic "JB" Bontemps

JB is a uniquely modern film composer, harmonizing a classical education with his rich tech background. As a maestro of Silicon Valley he wrote everything from the hip-hop infused score for the Tribeca-favorite documentary United Skates, to rousing additional music for the acclaimed film Creed II directed by Steven Caple Jr. He became the go-to composer for Caple Jr. while scoring his coming-of-age drama The Land, for which he also orchestrated the song “This Bitter Land” performed by Nas and Erykah Badu.

JB has scored dozens of features, documentaries, shorts, and videogames in all genres, fusing a contemporary sound with timeless emotion. His other recent projects include original scores for the Toni Braxton-led drama, Faith Under Fire, the Sundance selection Leimert Park produced by Charles King (Mudbound), and additional music for the new Epix series Godfather of Harlem starring Forest Whitaker. JB’s scores have echoed at Cannes, the Warsaw Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, and the American Black Film Festival, as well as at home on HBO, BET, Lifetime, NBC, Showtime, Netflix, PBS and Disney XD. Up next for JB is the Lifetime biopic Clarke Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel as well as Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, the Netflix and Shondaland-produced documentary miniseries about the Debbie Allen Dance Company’s award-winning production of The Nutcracker.

Born in Brooklyn, JB learned the piano and soaked up his gospel and jazz surroundings. He studied music at Yale and later found himself at the heart of the tech industry as a software developer and entrepreneur after selling his startup to HP. He thrived there for several years, but eventually decided to pursue his deeper passion and jumped head-first into the film scoring program at USC and the Sundance Film Music Lab. He apprenticed as a programmer for numerous A-list Hollywood composers before breaking out on his own.

“Film music has to tell a story without words,” JB says. “Its job is to add depth and dimension to the images and words presented on screen. That’s what attracted me to the medium; the opportunity to really express emotion with music alone.”