CAMILA MEZA

PORTAL

GroundUp Music

Camila Meza, vocals/acoustic guitar/electric guitar; Shai Maestro, keyboards/synthesizer/ programming; Ofri Nehemya, drums/percussion; Magaret Davis, harp. SPECIAL GUESTS: Gadi Lehavi, piano; Caleb Vangelder, drum machine/programming; Faumelisa Manquepillan, spoken poetry; Gretchen Parlato & Becca Stevens, vocals.

Camila Meza blends her bilingual talent with jazz and Latin American influences.  Everything is soaked in Brazilian rhythms, with elements of contemporary electronic music added.  Meza is a songwriter, as well as a vocalist, plus she plays guitar.

“Utopia” opens this album with a choir of background vocals in harmony.  Camila Meza’s lead vocal floats into the arrangement like a soft wind.  The percussion and drums, (or programmed rhythm) pushes this tune ahead with energy, even though Camila’s vocal offering is smooth and soothing. This is a very contemporary jazz arrangement, with Shai Maestro contributing an awesome solo on keyboard. A native of Chile, Camila Meza sings in Spanish. This original song by Meza is followed by another original tune called “The Nurturer.”  This time she sings in English, and she plays a stunning electric guitar solo.

With this album, Camila Meza navigates her personal feelings and experiences into her songs. The production probes universal portals, thus the name of her release as ‘Portal.’  All of her original compositions were inspired by her personal journey through pregnancy, childbirth and the resulting transformation. In every song, Meza took the opportunity to pump unconditional love into each creation. She explores not only her emotions during this musical and memorable project, but she uses her full soprano vocal range in lovely ways.

This artistic endeavor reminds me just a little bit of Minnie Ripperton when she sang with the Rotary Connection and they recorded the ground-breaking “Come to My Garden” project. I’m not saying Camila Meza has the range or vocal prowess of Ripperton, but the interesting songs Camila composes and the harmonies she hears, especially when layering the background parts, reminds me of harmonics Minnie would have heard.

Meza’s one-and-a-half-minute song that she co-wrote with Faumelisa Manquepillán is called “Nieno La (La Eterna)” and incorporates spoken word into the mix, spoken in Spanish.  This is followed by a song she shares with two of her guest jazz vocalists, Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens, who interpret her composition “Uncovered Ground.”

This is music that features a talented vocalist, while encouraging meditation and relaxation.  It challenges category and crosses genres and continents. There is definitely a place for Camila Meza in world music, as well as jazz.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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