Liza Da Costa....

"About Me" < www.lizadacosta.com
I listend to Jazz long before I even knew that there was such thing called Jazz. When I started singing Jazz, I was performing Stormy Weather. Of course it wasn’t the first song I’ve ever performed on stage then, but I remember being very touched by the way I could play with my voice in Jazz. Back then, I didn’t know anything about technique and skills, music and chords etc. My Father gave me some Nat King Cole records which I still cherish so much. Besides of that he was a drummer back in GOA/ India. My Mother is still singing in Church Choir.

I never studied music. When I was ready to go to university something much more interesting came in-between: the mega-selling-Popband Captain Jack. So I went to Real-Life-University: touring, recording, composing. Which I loved and still love. People ask me, how can I sing Jazz and at the same time do Popmusic? I think Jazz helped me become a better composer and singer for Popmusic. So many possibilities of creating a melody! It’s fantastic! People ususally come to me when they need a song. I write the song without any chords or other music intruments. The song itself should work perfectly with no other than a melody. If this happens, everything can be added enhancing what’s already good. I write quite a lot. Sometimes 3 or 4 songs a day. But not everyday, of course. But sometimes you have a run. This amount of output is only possible because I learned to listen to myself. I sing the whole day actually. If not out loud, I sing silently in my head. I used to forget the melodies I ’sing’ in the supermarket or elsewhere :-). But I realized, that these melodies were being born out of unconciousness. So I began recording bits of songs wherever I am on my mobile phone and then copy them on Garageband. So I have a huge collection of song-bits, which I combine, rewrite, record or whatever.

Now I am touring with Hotel Bossa Nova, we play Brazilian Jazz. Working with Hotel Bossa Nova has given me the opportunity to be ‘Portuguese’, and I feel so comfortable singing and composing in Portuguese, my mother-tongue, which it’s a very poetic language. And I wonder why I only started to do this now and not earlier. Isn’t there a time for everything?
Guess ‘now’ is perfect.

I don’t really know what it takes to be an artist. Sure is, that nobody can really tell or teach you. People can only show how to be more skillful in order to achieve a more artistic expression. At the end, you’ll be by yourself and you alone will be able to find the way. That’s what I try to do every day.
http://www.lizadacosta.com/?page_id=67

Liza Da Costa - Banana Coco