If she’s been informed right, her ancestors belonged to Goa and if you were to go by the sound of her name, you would think South-East Asian jazz artiste Marina Xavier does in fact belong to the ‘Pearl of the Orient’. But it was only last year when that she finally made her maiden trip to India (Goa) where she chanced upon virtuoso jazz bass player Colin D’Cruz and drummer Lester Godinho, members of Jazz Junction. Now, one year later, she is in Bangalore to perform with these Goan jazz connoisseurs as well as with Bangalore's own Jazz guitar expert Gerard Machado accompanied by pianist Joshua Costa.’
Born and bred in Singapore, the jazz singer created massive waves all over South East Asia with her English version of Alisha Chinoy’s “Made in India”. In a telephonic interview, a virtually excited Marina says: “In terms of what the crowd in Bangalore can look forward to, there’s going to be quite a lot of stuff from my latest album but there will also be surprises too. What I am looking forward to is checking out the jazz scene in Bangalore and more importantly meeting the new musicians I’m performing with as working with new people is always fun.”
Marina’s musical inspirations and influences are aplenty, “More than the musicians, it is the Jazz vocalists who inspire me the most,” she says. Ask her if she believes one has to be intelligent to understand jazz and she jests: “No way! Jazz is really about the feeling it creates, the interpretation is left up to the listener. That said it doesn’t hurt to have an intelligent audience.”
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Following the success of her version of “Made in India”, Marina states: “I love Bollywood music. It’s got some really nice grooves. And I would like to work with anybody who would be interested in collaborating with me.” With regards to what she knows about the jazz landscape in India, Marina says as she wraps up: “I’ve seen the people of Goa respond to it well. I’ve been to Mumbai but I didn’t really get a chance to catch the pulse of the jazz scene there but looks like when I’m in Bangalore over the weekend, I would be able to have it figured out to some extent.”
Marina Xavier performs tonight at 8.30 p.m. at Bflat, 100 Feet Road, above ING Bank, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar. For details, call 25278361/41739250.