Search - Marta Topferova :: Marea

How did a woman from the Czech Republic who now lives in New York decide to devote her life to Latin American and Caribbean music? Partly via same type of passion-from-afar that leads to admirable-but-by-rote Japanese Salsa ensembles and Northern European Country-and-Western bands. But this artist is far above such oddities. Aside from possessing a beautifully burnished, husky alto, what raises Topferova beyond novelty status is heart, originality and authenticity, each of which she possesses to a startling degree. Having achieved an idiomatic command of the Spanish language, she studied Cuban, Venezuelan and Colombian traditional styles until she was able to compose believable yet profoundly personal new material. Topferova's songs, accompanied by cuatro (a chordophone 4-stringed guitar,) Colombian harp, accordion, piano, French horn, violin and assorted percussion, use folklore as essence and springboard, but her coolly cerebral, cabaret-flavored, exuberantly jazzy persona is all her own. She is a true original. --Christina Roden