Music Sin Fronteras. Elizze Navarro, a rising young Mexican talent

Eliize Navarro, a rising young Mexican singer, songwriter, bandleader is one to watch. Take a look at the videos

I love watching young musical talent develop. Singers, guitarists, bassists, drummers – I have known many young people starting off in their music careers and watched them grow and succeed. Now that I am in Mexico and watching Latin music – and Mexican music especially – rise fast in popularity, I have been keeping my eyes on young Mexican talent on the cusp of breaking out of their local scene and building a career in this very tough industry. I have found more than a few;  Mary’s Island for example, which recently pushed past 150,000 downloads on Spotify and packed one of the area’s largest venues for their anniversary concert.

I have been watching another rising talent, Elizzé Navarro, a woman with all the ingredients for success.

I have seen Elizzé in various band configurations, a hard rock band, a covers/pop band, a duet with the lead singer from Mary’s Island, Fer Parra, and solo. This kind of band swapping and evolution is normal for young musicians finding their groove and their compadres and their band sound.  I think she has it now with her latest project, Elizzé Music.

I saw Elizzé Music twice this weekend;  Friday night at a small dinner venue, then Sunday afternoon at one of the area’s favorite music and meals spots, Baja Norte.  I have been keeping an eye on her because she has all the ingredients for success: a unique voice, songwriting, stage presence, beauty, the ability to assemble a very good band led by outstanding guitarist Benjamine Guerra, and confidence. All she needs is a larger stage and a younger audience.

I say younger audience because most of the venues she has been playing in have older audiences, which is good for tips and a good house, but to cater to their tastes she must do a lot of covers instead of her original material. She has solved this problem with her own takes on familiar songs and singing many of the covers in Spanish. She has a great blues growl and can belt when she wants to, loading emotion into a song like you would load butter and cream cheese and bacon bits onto a steaming mashed potato. Her “Summertime” mesmerized the crowd as she dropped down into her lower registers, growled “One of these mornings, you’re goin’ to rise up singin’” and  then soared with “And you’ll spread your wings and you’ll take the sky . Even in an outdoor restaurant with a one speaker PA and a tip box in front of the stage, she made it sound like a concert hall.

So now what? If she follows the path that others I know have followed, she and her band will open for larger bands, put some songs on Spotify and Bandcamp, move from restaurants to clubs – or more likely do both to pay the bills. And she will record – she is heading into a studio in Canada on March 10 and I will let you what the result s. Then you too can keep your eye on a rising young Mexican talent.

Patrick O’Heffernan