Estaire Godinez, whose singing impressed Prince, will perform a handful of free concerts at South Maui Gardens and The Shops at Wailea. Courtesy photo

Among Maui’s many talented musicians, Estaire Godinez has been keeping a low profile for a while. With an illustrious career that has included touring with Prince and jazz legend George Benson, the acclaimed singer and percussionist is gearing back up for public performances with gigs at South Maui Gardens and The Shops at Wailea.

Singing in English, Spanish and Portuguese, “the music I interpret is a mix of Latin jazz,” Godinez explained. “The music I write is a mix of funky Latin jazz with rock, pop and everything.”

Working on two albums, one is an all-Spanish project dedicated to her mother, “all of her favorite Mexican songs that I’m arranging.” The other is called “Madrid” and features “songs I wrote in Spain. I have a rock song, a reggae song, a funky rock cha-cha. They’re not salsa at all or Latin. They’re more rock with hints of Latin. And I have one song that I wrote paying homage to Prince.”

Playing professionally since she was 17, Godinez was living in Minnesota in 1999 when Prince became aware of her talent. “I had some of the baddest musicians in my band,” she recalled. “Two of them were part of NPG (Prince’s backing band New Power Generation), the saxophone player Eric Leeds and the guitar player Mike Scott. (Prince) started coming out to see me. I was at Bunker’s, a rock and funk club, on percussion, and he happens to walk in with Patti LaBelle. At the end, Patti LaBelle is walking by and she goes, ‘Damn, girl. I couldn’t stop watching you. You were like an octopus, and then you’re singing.’ I go, ‘Thank you,’ and then he walks past, and he looks at me, shakes my hand, and goes, ‘I love your voice.'”

A week later she got a call from Prince’s guitar tech inviting her for a jam.

“I get there and it turns out that it’s a regular jam on Friday,” she said. “He just loved my playing and wanted me to be there. So there I was, and he comes up to me and goes, ‘We’re going to Vegas. You want to come?’ And I look at him and I go, ‘To do what?’ Because the way he was asking me was so aloof. And he goes, ‘To play,’ and I started cracking up. Sure.”

She discovered that Prince hardly ever checked out other musicians. “I was the only artist that he came to see in Minneapolis. He really wouldn’t go out that much.”

Godinez ended up playing with Prince and the New Power Generation for a year. She was later told that during the time she performed with him, “he was the most relaxed.”

Many years earlier, while living in Amsterdam and performing with her band Salsa Moderna, she had encountered Prince before he became famous. “I saw the owner of the club with two guys standing next to him, and one guy was really little, just watching me. I go over there, and Steve, the manager, said, ‘This is Prince. He’s going to be very famous.’ He shakes my hand, and goes, ‘Hi, how are you? I love your voice.’

“He invited me to his show, and as soon as I walked in the door, it’s ‘Prince wants you to meet him after the concert in the back.’ I was so scared and left. How am I going to explain this to my boyfriend, this traditional Mexican girl then? I hadn’t really found myself yet.”

During her time in Europe, she spent a few years in Spain playing with leading musicians. “I started getting gigs little by little and practicing every day,” she said. “That’s all I did until finally I became one of the first female percussionists getting paid as well if not better than men. I was part of an article in Vogue with three other female musicians who were also trailblazing in Spain. Basically, I was doing what Sheila (E) was doing, but I was doing it over there.”

And then multi-Grammy-winning jazz legend George Benson invited her to tour with him. After auditioning, she stayed for five years, until 2005. “I had to play a song and to play with the band and see how it felt,” she said. “They all liked the way I played. But I had problems with the musical director. I usually don’t like to play longer than two years with an artist like that, because for me, it becomes too repetitive, too redundant. I should have left.”

While touring with Benson, she encouraged him to perform a Spanish language song. “I got him to do ‘La Puerta’ in Spanish,” she said. “I said, ‘George, you need to do a Mexican song because everyone’s going to love it.’ He started doing ‘La Puerta,’ and I would sing with him. I would join him on the bridge.”

Godinez will perform at 6 p.m. today at South Maui Gardens with Peter Hamon (no cover), at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 22 with Joe Benedett (free admission) at The Shops at Wailea, and at 6 p.m. Oct. 25 with Benedett (no cover) again at South Maui Gardens.