Early in 2020, Martina DaSilva set a goal for herself. Once a week, the jazz singer and New York City-native decided she would invite a group of friends and collaborators over to her house, and they would shoot a live performance of a song. She would organize everything, coordinate the band, pick the music, craft the look of the footage, then release it on social media. And she would do it all on a shoestring budget. Over six months later, having stayed true to her weekly plan, DaSilva is now bringing together all of her recordings to date, releasing them in three artistic, deeply enjoyable compilations — the first of which, Living Room 1, will arrive on October 8.

At the heart of Living Room 1’s track list are DaSilva’s gorgeous vocal performances. The singer has a keen sense of her own tastes — “I like really lyrical music,” she says with frankness, “I choose songs with beautiful melodies.” This leads her to a delicious array of material: she finds her melodies in jazz, bossa nova, 90s pop, and everything in between. As a result, Living Room 1 has treats for listeners of all stripes. And no matter the genre, DaSilva’s ability to work wonders with a melody, and her sheer charisma as a performer, remain dazzling constants.

DaSilva also took Living Room 1 as a chance to embrace the full scope of her creative interests, appointing herself director, production designer, editor, and more. She immersed herself in the smallest visual details, obsessing over colors and the feel of the camerawork. The videos she’s created have a distinct look — hip, DIY, fun — that draw you in. “I come from a family of visual artists,” she explains, “that was my first artistic language.” After spending a decade intensely focused on the jazz world, she felt a need to reincorporate her other passions. “To me, I’m half a visual artist, half a musician. It took me a long time to be brave enough to embrace both parts of myself, and to realize that doesn’t diminish my musicality, it actually expands it. Doing this made me feel like an artist again.”

Quite intentionally, Living Room 1 also functions as a visual piece about the New York jazz community today, and the people who are part of it. “I think some of the best musicians alive are in this community,” DaSilva says, “and I felt it wasn’t being documented in a contemporary way that could bring in a larger audience. And I would like it to have a larger audience.” For her, this means removing the distance between spectator and musician — she literally brings us into her living room alongside her and her band as they play. Short of sitting front row in a club, DaSilva’s videos offer one of the most authentic, intimate — and enjoyable — views you can get of jazz as it exists today in New York.