ABOVE PHOTO: Navasha Daya
Bringing a combination of jazz, funk and blues, Navasha Daya promises a feeling of home during her show at World Café Live Monday night.
By Denise Clay
If you can remember dancing in your family’s living room on a warm summer day, singer Navasha Daya promises an evening you won’t forget.
“If you come to my show, you’ll get good music that’ll make you feel like you’re at home, dancing with your cousins,” she said. “It’s really intimate.”
Daya, the former lead singer for the jazz/funk/soul band Fertile Ground, will be bringing her brand of homespun music to World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., on Monday. She’ll be performing music from her solo debut album “Rebirth Above Ground.”
The Cleveland-native started singing with her family when she was 10. When she turned 13, she started singing with her father’s reggae band and later went on to a performance arts high school.
But while she had a lot of good teachers, including her parents, it is her influences that are most interesting. From Chaka Khan to Sarah Vaughn to Marian Makeba, Daya has been impacted by artists who have been true to their art and to the forces surrounding them in the community.
Her music doesn’t have a specific musical classification. As an independent artist, that’s exactly the way Daya likes it.
“While having a major label behind me would give me more room to promote my music, you have to sacrifice a bit for your hustle in order to maintain your artistic freedom,” said Daya, who also runs the non-profit Youth Resiliency Institute in Baltimore. “It’s a numbers game. While having a machine behind you gives you more resources, it’s often at the expense of the art.”
Tickets for Navasha Daya at World Café Live are $25 in advance, $30 at the door and can be purchased at can be purchased at the Nile Café, 6608 Germantown Ave. You can also buy tickets online at http://navashaphillyshow.bpt.me or by calling 215-850-9739 or 215-313-5584.
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