Czech roots, Latin heart
By James Reed, Globe Staff
It's best to know nothing about Marta Topferova when you hear her music. That way, you can fully appreciate her husky jazz vocals, in Spanish, that glide over lyrics inspired by nature and poetry. You can hear her strident strumming of the cuatro, a tiny Venezuelan four-string guitar, and marvel at how her complex arrangements unfurl with delicate flourishes of harp, French horn, accordion, violin, and other instruments. Based solely on her material and the maturity of her sound, you might guess that Marta Topferova is a 50-something Latin American singer-songwriter.
And you'd be wrong. Topferova is a 29-year-old musician born in the former Czechoslovakia. She first heard Latin music through Chilean friends of her parents, both of whom were theater actors. An impressionable 6-year-old Topferova sat transfixed as she listened to records by Inti-Illimani, a Chilean protest group known for songs with intricate harmonies and traditional Andean instrumentation. By 8, she was singing with the Mladi children's chorus and eventually studied piano and guitar. As her parents took jobs with different theater troupes and finally moved to Prague, Topferova still found herself drawn to Latin music.
''It was everything -- the instrumentation, the rhythms, the arrangements," says Topferova, who plays at Scullers on Tuesday. ''What you have to realize is that Czech music is more classical, and it doesn't have a lot of rhythm. Latin music is all rhythm, like it's springing out of all these different styles and emotions. It was very exciting to me."
When Topferova came to the United States in 1987, she reconnected with her interest in Latin music. Only this time, she had befriended Hispanic students at school who essentially became her guides to all facets of Latin culture.
''I remember feeling really isolated when I came here, partly because I had left my homeland with just my mother and my sister -- I left with the idea that I'd never see my country again," she says. ''So for me, my introduction to Latin culture was very accepting and comforting."
Still, Topferova is the first to admit that the idea of a Czech woman singing Latin folk songs is a stretch.
''Europeans tend to be more skeptical of me," she says. ''They want to see a Cuban singer sing Cuban music, not someone else. But the Cubans, for example, are usually very impressed that I'm singing their music. I probably feel more uncomfortable doing traditional music than my own compositions."
Her own music is harder to describe. Pan-Latin, perhaps, but also folkloric and jazzy. On her latest album, ''La Marea," most of her songs deal with the image of water and the notion that we are nothing compared to nature's gravity. ''I'm just a grain of sand/ On the dunes next to the sea/ Or in the clock inside the glass," she sings in Spanish on the opening track, ''Grano de Arena" (''Grain of Sand").
Topferova's aesthetic developed over years of keen observation, and by her sponge-like ability to absorb all kinds of Latin music. As she began focusing on her own songs, she fashioned a style that's an amalgam of disparate influences: the thunderous vocals of Mercedes Sosa, the quiet lyricism of Atahualpa Yupanqui, the dramatic flair of Camaró n de la Isla.
Among her many travels, Topferova first landed in Spain, where she studied flamenco (first dance, and then composition) at Moró n de la Frontera in Andalucia, the region widely considered the heart of flamenco. Topferova has also spent time in Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico; though she's still shocked that she hasn't been to South America yet.
Instead, she has immersed herself in New York's Latin-music scene and does most of her performing with Venezuelan and Colombian musicians. Lately, her music education has come from Lucia Pulido, a Colombian singer who has taught Topferova about various styles and singers.
''Someday I'd like to bridge more of my Czech heritage with my interest in Latin music because I don't want to completely abandon my own roots," she says. ''I don't want to do something that sounds forced, though." With that in mind, she recorded ''Homage to Homeland" in 2002, a spare collection of a capella Czech, Moravian, and Slovak folk songs.
Whether it's Czech or Latin, Topferova says her far-flung influences all go toward coming up with her own musical ideas -- though it's the Latin sound that she still loves best.
''I find it all very enriching," she says. ''What people sometimes don't realize is that this is not cultural tourism for me. This music means the world to me, and I'm doing it for the right reasons."
James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.