Heryb Fuertes is a Dominican singer, musician, composer, producer and arranger from La Vega, who writes, plays, records, mixes and films his own work. He released his first records under the name Jabes and has recorded under his own name since 2020.

Jabes

The name is the biblical Jabez, who appears briefly in the first book of Chronicles and is remembered for a single prayer: that God would enlarge his territory. In 2017 he released an album called Ensanchando el Territorio — enlarging the territory. The name and the record are the same idea, and the choice tells you how he works: the songs are built on specific passages rather than on general devotion.

The pattern holds across that catalogue. Bartimeo is named for the blind beggar of Mark’s gospel. Renacer, Caída Libre and Musa Perfecta sit alongside it.

The Jabes records run from En la 4ta Estación in 2006 through Gloria (2012), Buen Padre (2016), the single Inagotable and Ensanchando el Territorio (both 2017), and end with the EP One More Day in 2020. Ensanchando el Territorio, released on 31 August 2017, carries nine tracks; Ivette Zapata sings on two of them and Davis Niño on a third.

One name, then another

He did not retire the first name so much as stop using it. The Jabes channels and profiles are still there, and all of them now point at herybfuertes.com; the videos on the Jabes channel are titled under his own name, and its release tab still holds the old albums. His Spotify page as Jabes was never updated and still announces Inagotable, from 2017, as his most recent single.

Everything himself

The credit line he publishes with his singles is unusually complete, and it is almost entirely one name. Lyrics, music and arrangements are his; so are musical production, lead vocal, backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, programming, electronic drums, recording and mixing. Only the mastering goes elsewhere, to Marco Ramírez.

The videos are made the same way. Direction, production, editing, colour grading and visual effects are his as well, with an assistant director alongside. He releases through his own imprint, HFMusic, and has spoken publicly about what it means to put out music without a label behind it.

The singles

Los Colores de Mi Tierra came first, in 2020 — a song about Dominican identity that he still posts each year on Independence Day. Nada followed in 2021 and met with a great acceptance that none of the others have matched, enough that he cut an alternative version of it the following year. Esclavo, his third single, arrived in 2022.

Te Seguiré was released on 5 January 2024 and reaches deliberately for the pop sound of the early and middle eighties. No Falla followed later the same year.