Jazz vocalist Martina DaSilva, a New York City native, captivates audiences with her signature blend of daring technical virtuosity and expressive emotional sensitivity. Drawing equally from the styles of early jazz, opera, and chamber music, her musicality transcends conventional genre labelling. As a Brazilian-American, Martina 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.
Currently, Dasilva is releasing her LIVING ROOM series. Early in 2020, Martina DaSilva set a goal for herself. Once a week, the jazz singer and New York City-native decided, she would invite a group of friends and collaborators over to her house, and they would shoot a song on video. She would organize everything — coordinate the band, pick the music, craft the look of the footage, then release it on social media.
DaSilva also took LIVING ROOM 1 as a chance to embrace the full scope of her creative interests, appointing herself director, production designer, editor, and more. She immersed herself in the smallest visual details, obsessing over colors and the feel of the camerawork. The videos she’s created have a distinct look — hip, DIY, fun — that draw you in. “I come from a family of visual artists,” she explains, “that was my first artistic language.” After spending a decade intensely focused on the jazz world, she felt a need to reincorporate her other passions. “To me, I’m half a visual artist, half a musician. It took me a long time to be brave enough to embrace both parts of myself, and to realize that doesn’t diminish my musicality, it actually expands it. Doing this made me feel like an artist again.”
