Maria Gentile-Martin

What is your most important goal right now?
To be happy, and to keep positive always. Enjoy life.

What are your three must-see movies?
You know, I haven't seen a lot of movies and I feel like there are a lot of classic movies I haven't seen. I haven't seen Casablanca. So it would always be the classics that I've missed out on at some point or another. Do you know what? I actually like documentaries. I like real stuff. One of my favorite books is Memoirs of a Geisha, because it really touched on a culture that I don't know much about. And I know there's a documentary out there about real geisha girls — I don't know if it was based on that book, so I don't know what it was called. I guess just learning about different cultures through different mediums, if you can't go there. I just watched the Kurt Cobain documentary on the plane because I just came back from Europe. It was pretty standard, I grew up listening to Kurt Cobain — he's from when I was a teenager. There wasn't anything too blindingly novel for me other than the fact that I didn't know that he came from a very well-to-do family. Not that there's really much to be said about that, other than people will take their path regardless of where they came from.

Tell me about your look!
I dress in only 1950s gear. I make many of my own dresses and I always have. So the skirt is one of mine. I'm also a thrift store junkie. I go looking and then very often I can't find my size, but I piece together different materials and I recreate 1950s fashion for me.

Is that your occupation?
No, I'm a project manager. But I'm a jazz singer outside of work and all of the music that I sing is 1940s and '50s big band swing jazz, so I like to incorporate that into everything I do, because that's my favorite music.

What's the song that you love to sing the most?
"Fascinating Rhythm." Ella Fitzgerald's covered it — everybody's covered it — but her version of it is my favorite. It just encapsulates that whole idea that everyone's trying to write about in love songs. With this particular song she's talking about this fascinating rhythm that's happening in her heart. She's talking about being in love, and she's trying to say, no, just go away! But she can't help it. It's just a beautiful way of collecting words to say: I'm falling in love, it's beautiful, but I don't know if I want that yet.

What is the person that makes you laugh the hardest/that you're most grateful for?
My husband. He's ridiculous in every way possible and I adore him. He's hilarious. He can turn into a 3-year-old in 0.2 seconds. He's just very high-spirited and he's hilariously funny without trying. Everyone tells him, You are so funny, you should be on stage!