Natalie Forteza reprises holiday show
Natalie Forteza has turned tragedy into triumph and it’s all right there in her music and lyrics. Comparisons to the calm, laid-back grooves of Sade are inevitable — and welcome.
“It’s the highest honor to have anyone say our names in the same breath,” she says. “Sade is my ultimate inspiration and the reason I’m able to fully imagine and visualize exactly what I want for myself as an artist.”
For the fourth year in a row, she will bring her Christmas by Candlelight show to the Chapel Restoration, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 7. The glow and the music will create a chill atmosphere as Forteza performs with her band: Pat Firth on piano, Anthony Candullo on bass and Erik Perez on drums.
Raised in Westchester County, Forteza experienced one of many crushing blows when her stepfather died in the crash of Flight 587, which took off from JFK Airport on Nov. 12, 2001, two months after 9/11.
As with everyone, setbacks are inevitable, but there is little evidence of Forteza’s darker past in her music or lyrics, which remain sunny and positive, the way she tries to live every day. During a recent show, held at the Howland Cultural Center, she called herself “a proudly obnoxious optimist.”
(Photo provided)
At the Chapel Restoration, she will perform “What Christmas Should Always Be,” which she wrote with Aamir Bermiss and Greg Seltzer. According to the lyrics, the season should feature the “presence of love, harmony and peace,” and be a time when people “gather ’round enjoying each other’s company / The open fire, our favorite carols / We sing while we wait for the holy midnight hour.”
Her music exudes an easy-listening mood and groove, where solos are understated and no one is in a hurry. Even during mild funk interludes, notes linger and nothing comes unraveled. Slow-burn arrangements breathe as Forteza’s upper-register falsetto seesaws from whispering to speaking to soaring, angular melodies.
Fond of sports and food analogies, Forteza calls her music a stew with distinctive ingredients beyond a base of Sade. There’s also some Sting, smooth jazz, Brazilian jazz and Nat King Cole in there.
“I don’t want to define myself because it can become a cliché, even though using these parallel names helps people identify the general genre,” says Forteza, who lives in Fishkill. “My music has a vibe and I want people to walk away not describing it, but enjoying it and feeling good.”
An untrained music lover who played violin as a child and sang with her high school chorus, she just wanted to learn some instruments and never aspired to be a songwriter. But for the last 15 years, she’s worked with many musical collaborators around the area and is settling into a solid situation with her current band.
Though the mellow Sade-like styling feels good now, Forteza’s eclectic taste could push her in another direction one day. “Maybe I’ll bust out and rearrange my vibe, who knows?” she says. “I love strings, classical guitar, thick bass and drums, house music and electronica, and it would be fun to come up with great riffs and different elements, like adding salt and fat to a recipe.”
The Chapel Restoration is located at 45 Market St. in Cold Spring, next to the Metro-North station. Tickets are $30 at chapelrestoration.org.
