Itzel Damaris

 

 It’s hard to say what’s most exciting about Itzel Damaris, a wholly original singer and songwriter in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her knack for pop songcraft is matched by a fearlessly vulnerable voice that can barely contain the emotion of her plaintive lyrics.

 

 

Born to Panamanian parents in Queens, New York, Itzel grew up east of Los Angeles and started performing at the age of ten. Although her early training and experience were in classical music, she was also heavily influenced by the Latin, jazz, and pop rhythms that permeated her life growing up. In recent years, she’s performed with Quinn Deveaux, Carambola, and her own jazz and bossa nova trio. Now she’s blazing her own trail with A Lot Like Love, her debut album as a songwriter and solo artist.

 

On her debut album, A Lot Like Love, Itzel Damaris proves that simple melodies, unflinching lyrics, and spare arrangements can pack a devastating emotional punch. The album’s deceptively smooth pop songs draw upon, but never lean on, Itzel’s jazz and classical training. Instead, the focus is on her voice, a pure, unadorned instrument that is equally at home in joy and desolation—but at its most powerful when roaming all the bittersweet territory in between.