Jazz vocalist Martina DaSilva, a New York City native, captivates audiences with her signature blend of daring technical virtuosity and expressive sensitivity. Drawing equally from the styles of early jazz, opera, and chamber music, her musicality transcends conventional genre labelling. As a Brazilian-American, Martina naturally also has a passion for performing the works of Brazilian composers. DaSilva actively performs with her own group in addition to leading the jazz vocal harmony group, The Ladybugs. Martina has received high praise for her performances at the Kennedy Center, the Bern International Jazz Festival, the Blue Note Jazz Festival, the NYC Hot Jazz Festival, Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Generations in Jazz Festival, and the NY Winter Jazzfest. We are very excited to have her on the show.
Martina informs me before the start of the show that she has two trombones in the house in case it's too loud for us to do the interview. I love trombones - I tell her and it's going to be more authentic that way." I am married to one trombone player and I am friends with another trombone player and they are in the other room!"
SD: Im so happy you are live with us! I want to find out what it takes to be a jazz vocalist and what inspires you on this journey.
MD: Sure. To answer the first question. I was always really into singing as a kid. For as long as I can remember. I come from a family of visual artists so I grew up around a lot of art. I was kind of more going down that route. I grew up in NYC in Manhattan and there is a performance art high school there called LaGuardia. I got accepted there for art and for singing and my gut just told me to go for singing. So I learned a lot about music there and I got really into classical music and opera. Then in my last year there I started singing Jazz and by the time I finished my undergrad, I was already in the new York Jazz scene... and that just became my full time job.
SD: Wow what's the New York jazz scene like? A lot of people are dreaming about being part of it or to just even experiencing it. Whats that like?
It's amazing. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by friends with the most incredible musicians. And you asked what inspires me and it's the musicians and the artists that I meet in New York. Being in the jazz scene is awesome because doing improvised music equips you with the confidence that you can take with you wherever you go because you have to trust your intuition. The way it works with Jazz is that you end up working with different people and sometimes those you have never met before... when you have a gig and you have to communicate and it's an incredible tool to have as human.
SD: It's a really beautiful exercise of letting go of any kind of structure, right? What is your goal for the music that you are creating? What do you wanna achieve?
As a musician, I spent the past 10 years of my life really focusing on leaning the language of jazz and how to get my technique together as a vocalist so that I have the tools to sing whatever I hear in my head and I feel like now, the next goal is really getting very very deep into he story and the intention of the lyrics. It's something I've always payed attention to but I feel like I can get to the next level of that and I'm also inspired by opera singers and I watch masterclasses online and I see the way they approach lyrics in such a thoughtful and honest way that it's my musical goal right now for sure
SD: Wow so its merging Jazz with Opera
MD: Yes, sort of but not just opera but also acting. Sometimes you can focus so much on the technical aspect of whatever art form you practice and I feel like for years I have focused on singing and now I want to focus on communication and it s really hard to turn that part of my brain off.
SD. You say the process of jazz is improvisational. What is your process. What drives you to create.
That's hard to answer, Its always different. Often It'll be just the musicians that I'm playing with and hearing beautiful things that come out of them and that makes me want to explore something new. Just artists in my life in general-Like I met you -and when I was in LA there were so many incredible artist at that event we did coming from different mediums. and I oftentimes find that exploring different mediums inspires me - seeing an incredible film or going to a gallery.
SD: So you are a multimedia artist of sorts!
MD: Yes
SD: Are you ok to play us something?
MD: What kind of song do you wanna hear? I'll play a beautiful country song Tennesse Waltz I did with Ladybugs.Postmodern Jukebox takes contemporary songs and creates them into Jazz Versions. This is like a really old country tune.
SD:Thank you so much for performing for us live. Just very quickly before we part ways (and of course get back and catch up with you again) What are your plans for the future and where can we see you perform live?
Sure- if you are in NY tonight, I will be at Dezzys Club cocacola at jazz Lincoln Center. I am doing a show with the great saxon palyer named Patric Barkley and a great singer Tatiana Eva Marie and its a tribute to Judy Garland, so that's been fun, I've been there all week, so if you're around in New York that's at 11.30 tonight. Then with my band The Lady Bugs we are at Birdland on February 19th and I guess other goals for this year is to write a lot of music, to make lots more videos and get better at recording at home and to release another EP with my band.
Great. really looking forward to that and we can follow you on Instagram @martidas and thank you so much
* Interview Transcribed from an Eye Dream TV instagram live stream in February 2017
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