Equally prized as a vocalist, guitarist and composer, Camila Meza has uplifted audiences worldwide with her assured and beautiful singing, highly advanced guitar (both self- accompaniment and blistering solo work), and vivid, melodic songwriting that reveals complex layers with every listen. She’s been hailed by The New York Times as “a bright young singer and guitarist with an ear for music of both folkloric and pop intention.”. In May 2019 she released her fifth album, Ámbar, (Sony Music Masterworks), producing it herself and proudly unveiling The Nectar Orchestra, an ensemble combining rhythm section and string quartet. Distinguished by its extraordinarily close attention to sonic detail, Ámbar is Meza’s boldest artistic statement to date. Steeped in metaphor, romance and complex emotion, Ámbar is a breakthrough, rooted in the incredible agility and interplay of Meza’s state-of-the-art jazz group, peppered with American pop and Latin American music across eras and genres. Debuting in 2007 with Skylark, Meza followed up in 2009 with Retrato, again in 2013 with Prisma and in 2016 with the ambitious Sunnyside release Traces (produced by Matt Pierson, featuring Shai Maestro, Matt Penman and Kendrick Scott, among others). The recording won two Independent Music Awards for Best Adult Contemporary CD and Best Latin Song (“Para Volar”). Meza moved from Chile to New York at 23, graduating in 2013 from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where she studied with Peter Bernstein, Vic Juris, Sam Yahel, Steve Cardenas and Gil Goldstein, among others. Bringing a sound full of warmth and clarity to the New York jazz scene ever since, she has distinguished herself as a member of Ryan Keberle’s Catharsis and Fabian Almazan’s Rhizome, and has also worked with Kenny Barron, Paquito D’Rivera, Aaron Goldberg, Sachal Vasandani and many more. She has appeared at festivals worldwide as well as NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and WBGO’s The Checkout, garnering praise from The Village Voice, The Wall St. Journal and many other outlets. Meza is a Rising Star in both the guitar and female vocal categories in the esteemed DownBeat Critics Poll. In 2018, Pat Metheny enlisted her to perform and act as musical director for his NEA JazzMasters induction ceremony at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
