About Maryna Zakharova, a jazz pianist. Or how Roma music sounds in jazz adaptation

Culture

In the most recent episode of the podcast «Ai Tu Jianes. Did you know that?», we shall try to find out how Ederlezi, a Roma folk song, sounds and why is it performed by one of the most prominent jazz musicians in her jazz repertoire. The bright and talented singer, pianist, and composer Marinita aka Maryna Zakharova, talks to Eva Raiska about Roma jazz arrangement of Roma music.

Marinita has been practising music for her entire life; she graduated from the theoretical and jazz faculties of Kharkiv Musical Academy. She is a master of vocal and piano technique; she has a bright ethnic manner of singing with exquisite oriental melismatics and flawless intonation; she is natural in her using of complex rhythms so common to Middle Eastern, Turkic, Balkan, and Roma traditions.

During this year’s Jazz Bezz International Jazz Festival’s performance in Drohobych City, Maryna Zakharova teamed up with an Israeli Elnatan Brothers jazz band.

«I love diverse ethnic music: Romani, Jewish, Balkan, Persian, Turkic, Arabic, African, Latin American and other varieties; I also love classical music, jazz, and rock music. My most favourite bands are those performing in the Global Music style merging ethnic music with classical music and jazz»,— recounts Maryna Zakharova.

Marinita’s discography is comprised of four albums; plus, she is featured in a number of collections of audio records. One should note that she sings most of her songs in the Ukrainian language. Marinita participated in a number of international musical festivals in Ukraine, United States, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Israel.

You can listen to the full version of this podcast by opening the audio file attached.