Myele Manzanza & The Eclectic are performing at Meow on Friday, June 8th as part of the Wellington Jazz Festival.Nag Champa is an Indian incense that has a unique and intoxicating smell, the fragrance is often described as exotic and sensual. “Finally I get to put a special thing together for the home team,” he contentedly beams. His second show, The Eclectic, is the more “ groove and J Dilla, Common, Ron Trent side.” He has ears like the GCSB, he hears everything! It’s crazy.” “Matthew is an absolute virtuoso.he’s got this amazing classical virtuoso touch mixed with this incredible improviser’s skill. The first show is the Myele Manzanza Trio, which is the “more improvisational jazz” show, featuring “the inimitable Matthew Sheens on piano.” He’s particularly excited about his two forthcoming shows in the Wellington Jazz Festival. READ: Joint Jukebox - Ross McHenry and Myele Manzanza ' gives you room to create in the moment rather than having to predetermine everything and have the creative process behind the scenes and then you present the completed thing.” “The creative process is happening every night, every time you play. He's been behind the kit with Electric Wire Hustle, legendary Detroit DJ Theo Parrish, Amp Fidler, Jordan Rakei, Mark de Clive-Lowe, and Jonathan Crayford, but is currently immersed in jazz because of its “real-time” creativity. The older, more considered Myele has played across RnB, hip hop, pop, electronic and afrobeat genres. “It might be a disadvantage in some ways to be the special kid.Sometimes it takes a minute to shed that old skin.

Now is juggling a full-time job in addition to being a musician, as opposed to his youthful projection of living in a “penthouse apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park.” “The 20-year old me looking ten years into the future assumed I would be in a different place to where I am now. I thought of the journey of music as a competitive sport.” In his younger years, “I had to be the best. “I wasn’t the most overt child prodigy, but music was definitely a thing that made me stand out from a relatively young age all the way through to present day.'Īlthough being 'one of those 'talented' kids” has been a complicated experience for Myele, who, thanks to his Dad, didn’t lack in self-confidence and belief. LISTEN: Musical Dynasties - Sam and Myele ManzanzaĮven thought Myele wasn't forced to follow in his father's footsteps, his natural talent did draw attention. You must follow in my footsteps,’ it was just a thing that was around.” and I may have had a quicker understanding of it than if I was brought up in a family that wasn’t musical” “Growing up in that kind of upbringing, music was around.

And that’s where we are going.’ There is no fake humble in there.” He will get on the stage and he’ll say, ‘This is my stage.

“My Dad isn’t cocky, but he is very sure of himself. “I think he’d prefer to refer to himself as the African President,” laughs Myele, who accompanied Sam as he taught African drumming workshops and performed on New Zealand stages. Drumming is in Myele Manzanza’s blood, thanks to his father – Congolese drummer Sam Manzanza, who has been a vibrant and visible ambassador of Afrobeat rhythms since emigrating to New Zealand in the 1980s.

Nag champa pronunciation