Portal [MP3 Download] PRE-ORDER

Featuring Camila Meza (guitar & vocals, producer), Shai Maestro (producer, synths, programming), Ofri Nehemya (drums), Margaret Davis (harp), Gadi Lehavi (piano), Gretchen Parlato (guest vocals) Becca Stevens (guest vocals), Caleb Vangelder (programming, drum machine), Faumelisa Manquepillán (spoken word on “Nieno La”)

***CD Release Celebration – June 4th, 2025 @ Joe’s Pub, NYC!***

Vocalist/guitarist/composer CAMILA MEZA is a rarity, a glorious triptych of an artist. She possesses a gift for composing brilliant musical landscapes, a captivating, soulfully pure vocal instrument, and a consummate prowess on guitar, ablaze with irresistible melodies and improvisations. Camila Meza, originally from Santiago, Chile, has garnered rapt attention from her colleagues, the press, and audiences in South America, New York City, and internationally, for her distinctive ability in blending jazz with her broad musical world (that includes Latin American, Brazilian, folk and pop), and for the emotional depth of her music. This rising star on the global jazz scene has been described by The New York Times as, "a bright young singer and guitarist with an ear for music of both folkloric and pop intention," and called, "a natural multi-talent, an improvising singer-guitarist who is one of the finest in the world in both creative realms," by pianist Aaron Goldberg.  He added that, "she unites North and South America in a multilingual mega-continent, a Pangaea of swing and harmony." Being called to join your peers on stage and in the studio remains one of the true tests that any NYC jazz musician will face, and Camila has passed, summa cum laude, staying very busy as an in-demand side musician, working with the likes of Ryan Keberle, Fabian Almazan, Aaron Goldberg, Sachal Vasandani, Dave Douglas, Arooj Aftab and many others. 

On May 30th, 2025 Ground Up Music proudly releases Camila Meza's debut recording for the label (and her sixth overall), Portal, produced by Camila Meza and Shai Maestro featuring Ofri Nehemya, Margaret Davis, with special guests Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens, Faumelisa Manquepillán, Caleb Vangelder and Gadi Lehavi. 

Six years since her latest release, Camila Meza comes back with an ever more strong and bold statement - her most personal musical piece up to date. This being her first record with only original compositions, this album finds her in her full power as a consummate and original songwriter and composer, unveiling new colors and textures to her palette. Recorded during the pandemic and during Camila’s journey through pregnancy and birth, the album gained a deeper and almost existential meaning to her: “Most of the songs were written in 2019 during a creative spree to fulfill a Jazz Gallery Commission, I composed them in a bit of a trance. The only thing I really knew was that it was about a passage, a sort of transmutation. I wanted to portray the human capacity to transform our reality from the evident darkness that surrounds it, into its potential for light, for beauty.” While writing she describes visions of archetypical figures, including The Mother as a way to describe the unconditional love and capacity for nurturing that humans have, and The Wise Woman, a figure that represents ancient wisdom, answers from our ancestors in times of deviation where our connection to our essence has been lost. 

“This album became my deepest plea and conjuring of a world where we can manifest our ideals. Where we can re-remember our unity with what we call Nature and live more harmoniously in it, between us and within ourselves. Where we can question the status quo and find different answers that can lead to healthier ways of living. Where polarities can find balance and we can reconsider what really is important for us. I didn’t know then, but part of what I was writing about was also my own portal into becoming a mother and experiencing that unlimited love myself, and how relevant it would become to try to create that vibrant and beautiful world, as my son’s future was now in it.” 

Portal was born from Camila Meza’s joyous and inquisitive journey from a young, accomplished musician in Chile (inspired by Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Pat Metheny, Led Zeppelin, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix, Bjork, Elis Regina, Chet Baker among others), to becoming part of a new generation of adventurous jazz musicians in New York who are fearlessly imposing their disparate influences and experiences on jazz, with glorious results.

Throughout Portal Camila offers the listener a remarkable gift; her true self and her abundant talents, as expressed through these songs, with no less than luminosity, passion, honesty and love.

Album Release Date: 5/30/2025
First Single: 3/28/2025 - The Nurturer
Second Single: 4/25/2025 - Transmutación