To Maria Rita, stage is home

Being the daughter of a superstar is no longer a burden to her.
By TOM MURPHY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Brazilian newcomer Maria Rita, one of Wednesday's Latin Grammy winners, treats her family's rich musical legacy as a personal gold watch -- a treasure to be guarded but not used as an up-to-date timepiece.
"There's a certain hysteria surrounding the fact that I'm the daughter of Elis Regina," says Rita. "But it stopped being a burden for me when I realized it's a projection of other people's desires."
Regina was a Brazilian pop music superstar often compared to Judy Garland or Edith Piaf. When Regina died at 36 in 1982, Rita was barely four (her father is Brazilian pianist/arranger Cesar Camargo Mariano).
Fans hear mother
Many fans hear Regina in Rita's self-titled debut, which has earned her two Latin Grammy awards for best new artist and best popular Brazilian album ("A Festa").
Slight, self-confident and steely, Rita began performing only two years ago.
"I tried other things first, including the production side of the music business," she says, sipping wine at a cantina in her native city of Sao Paulo. "I wanted to make sure my motives were right."
She says of her decision to become a singer: "The first time I got up on stage to perform, I knew I was home."
"Maria Rita," backed by substantial publicity, sold 100,000 copies the first week of its release.
What fans heard, aside from a remote tingle of her mother's stylized delivery, was a mellow, jazzy sound that's a natural combination for the hushed shadows-and-light cadences of the Portuguese language.
To American ears, the sound is known as Brazilian jazz and features the classic accompaniment of piano, acoustic bass and drums.
Norah Jones comparisons
"Some critics have drawn a comparison with Norah Jones," says Rita of the unlikely pop-jazz superstar. "But it's just a coincidence. I was not influenced by her."
Rita spent eight critical years growing up in the United States, first as a high-school student in Chatham, N.J., then as an undergraduate at New York University, where she earned degrees in communications and Latin American studies.
"My father went to the United States to expand his musical horizons," says Rita, who was also, subconsciously, was expanding her own.
In the New York-New Jersey nexus, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole shimmered across the radio waves.
"And, of course, I listened to George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson," she adds.
These days, her month-old son, Antonio, with Brazilian movie director Marcus Baldini helps keep her balanced.
"My goal is not to be the Brazilian this or the next that ... I aim to be the Brazilian ME."