Myele Manzanza: Homecoming Gigs

Myele’s been living in London for six years where he has recorded multiple albums, collaborated with a range of musicians and has a residency at the world-famous jazz club, Ronnie Scott’s.
We caught up with Myele as he prepares for his homecoming performance.

It’s been six years since Myele left New Zealand for the UK and he’s now central to the London jazz scene. I start by asking him what have been the highlights of the London experience so far.

“It's crazy how fast those 6 years have gone. London definitely has its challenges but on the whole it's been a very welcoming and receptive scene for me to have become a part of. Being in a position where I've been able to focus on music, performance and making work I want to make full time is a privilege and having the Ronnie Scott's residency has been a big part of that. That place has made me feel like family over the last four years.”

Myele returns to his hometown with cross-cultural quartet lvdf, an international jazz supergroup. I asked him how it feels to be coming home to Wellington to perform in Wellington Jazz Festival?

“It is really special. WJF was the highlight of the year for me when I was living in New Zealand, and since getting more established in the UK and Europe it's been a dream of mine to be able to perform with a project and my friends from this side of the world.

“I'm proud of my hometown and to be able to share that with Michelangelo (Scandroglio) and Alex (Hitchcock) of lvdf and show my home city what I've been up to is an honour for sure.”

In Wellington, lvdf comprises double bass player Michelangelo and saxophonist Alex, with special guest Daniel Hayles on piano and synths, stepping in for Maria Chiara Argirò. I asked Myele how the group came together.

“The project initially came from a festival commission in Italy that Michelangelo secured. He wanted to treat it as a collaborative workshop between the four of us where we'd all write music and develop it together, and it ended up being something bigger than the sum of its parts and we all felt we wanted to continue it.

“I think the joy of this band for all of us is that it's a co-led project, both creatively and on the business side. As we're all bandleaders in our own right, often we're taking on all the responsibility and risk for a project or tour, which is inevitably super stressful at times, so it's great to have a project where we can share the risk and reward.”

Myele added that the group will be looking to record a full album in the future.

“We're in the thick of the run of shows and tours from until April, and we'll pick it up from there, but there's already material on the brew from all of us, so it'll be a matter of finding time when we're all free to make the album.”

The Wellington Jazz Festival performance includes the commissioned piece “Music For a Multi-Polar World”. I asked Myele what inspired the work and what audiences can expect.

“The piece is very much inspired by shifts in contemporary geo-politics over the last five years - between Britain leaving the European Union, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, the ongoing conflicts in Sudan and Congo, the re-election of Donald Trump, and the economic rise of China, India and the Middle East, there has been a lot of history that has come since the supposed ‘end of history’ we thought we had reached in the 90s. It feels like we’re entering the end of the ‘Western’ dominated era and momentum is shifting us further into a more multi-polar world order.”

Myele notedthat until recently he had deliberately avoided politics in his music.

“Maybe I thought politics was too divisive, or perhaps naively I thought art was something that could exist ‘above’ politics and the comings and goings of governments. However, I’ve noticed especially in the last year how much the geopolitical shifts have unsettled and angered me, as well as shifting and widening my views on the world and giving me some things to be hopeful for amidst all of the change. Subconsciously, a lot of my recent writing and approaches to music have reflected this sense of unease, and rather than ignore it I think it’s worth investigating these themes further and allowing them to inform my approach to the music.

“Within reason I’d say that it's not exactly a comfortable piece of music. It might be challenging to some of the audience, but I hope it's something that can provoke a bit, or at the very least act as a reflection on the times we're living in and offer a little hope for the future.”

Myele’s trip home is packed with gigs (he’s also slotting in a jam session ahead of the lvdf concert) before heading to Melbourne International Jazz Festival so there won’t be much downtime.

“I’ll definitely see my parents, and no doubt I'll pop into Midnight Espresso for the late-night bite, and if time allows maybe a morning hike up to the Brooklyn wind turbine just to get a view of the city. Beyond that, it's work work work. But I'll be back around Christmas this year too so will have a bit more time to reconnect then.”

Looking to the future Myele said London is feeling more and more like home “and it has been a more practical place for me to live as a performing artist, but I do genuinely miss New Zealand.”

And when I asked who his dream collaborators would be for the future, he didn’t hesitate to name the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

“A lot of what I'm working on right now is delving deeper into the orchestral/contemporary classical world, and it'd be a massive dream to work with the NZSO on a work that's written and arranged for orchestra and band rather than just super-imposing an orchestra over a rhythm section – actually conceiving a work that integrates both musical worlds into something cohesive. I’m still a way off composing a work worthy of that, but writing, arranging and working with orchestral forces are my main creative ambition at the moment.”

And finally, we had to ask about his next album: Crisis & Opportunity Vol 4 was released in 2023 and was well-received, when is number 5 coming out?

“AAAAAARRRRRGHHH We'll see. Might be something tied into the orchestral ideas I'm developing (wink wink, nudge, no spoilers).

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