Profile by Robert Ablon.
Bay Area Native Cava Menzies was a natural fit for the Oakland Originals project. A Jazz Pianist and Music Educator who performs regularly throughout the area, Cava wrote the music for the Originals documentaries featuring Asiya Wadud and Vanessa Solari Espinoza.
“I loved the premise of the project and was really inspired by its vision — to create beautiful, short films highlighting Oakland artists, influencers, and change-makers,” Cava says.
She recalls composing music for the short on urban forager, Asiya Wadud.
“The footage was just so beautiful, the music nearly wrote itself,” Cava says. “I loved the way it captured the color, texture, smells and sounds of what it feels like to live in Oakland’s semi-urban Mediterranean environment. I’m also a plant lover and avid gardener, so this short really spoke to me as an Oakland resident who loves getting out in nature.”
An Oaklander since 2001, Cava is a founding faculty member and chairs the Music Department at the cutting edge charter school, Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), which sits atop the revitalized Fox Theatre in the heart of Oakland’s hip Uptown district.
“I have watched parts of Oakland completely transform,” she says. “The Fox Theatre building was dormant for decades, and now it’s this epicenter of activity, where people will line up around the building and you look up at the marquee and see that Prince is playing!”
Cava finds plenty of reasons to talk up Oakland. The topography, for example.
“I love the land,” she says. “I love the sweeping, majestic views of the Bay up in the hills, juxtaposed with the colorful urban, industrial feel of East and West Oakland.”
What’s Oakland’s biggest draw for Cava?
“It really has to be the diversity,” she says. “Oakland has this incredible diversity of people, of thought, of culture. That’s what makes it so dynamic for me.”
Cava also appreciates the diversity of subjects chosen for the Oakland Originals shorts:
“What I love about the approach of the Oakland Originals is that it doesn’t just look at artists, but also spotlights a broad cross-section of change-makers and innovators in our community.”
Cava recently released an album, Moment to Moment, with trumpeter and Concord Music record producer, Nick Phillips, which received 4 stars from Downbeat Magazine and national acclaim. To learn more about Cava and her music, please visit: www.cavamenzies.com
Meet more of our filmmaking team on our Meet the Filmmakers page