Q&A musa manzini
Thebe Mabanga
Musa Manzini, a graduate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) school of music, is one the latest, noticeable arrivals on the jazz scene. With class and elegance he effortlessly alternates between the electric guitar and the double bass. His self-produced, self-titled debut, New Reflections (BMG), earned him a South African Music Awards nomination for best contemporary jazz album and has kept him shuttling between Johannesburg and Cape Town, where he is based as a musical director for e.tv’s Backstage.
Like Selaelo Selota and Jimmy Dludlu, another stylish guitarist from UCT, is style part of the education?
No, not really. All I can say is that Cape Town is a bit relaxed and one has time to find oneself and really get to master [your instrument].
You have said you prefer the six-string, why is that?
It has a higher frequency and allows you room for experimentation and improvisation.
Improvisation. You seem to place a lot of emphasis on that.
In jazz, the key element is surprise. And to improvise you must know your chord structure and how to read music.
Sounds a bit academic. How much of what we are hearing is due to your formal training?
All of it, actually. Formal training has enabled me to make the album light and accessible and thus appeal to a wider audience.llll For althoughll many jazzllll artists would like to play traditional jazz, you can’t get by on that.
Nhlanhla Magagula has contributed a lot of composing. Tell us about him.
He is an amazing piano player who I met in the late Eighties at the Music Action People’s Progress (MAPP). We have since grown together in the music and have became good friends.
He has contributed to a number of projects, including Jimmy Dludlu’s first album. He is a very skilled composer and arranger and has very good knowledge of styles from jazz to kwaito.
Sounds like someone who should have recorded a solo by now.
Yes, it is just that there are a lot of artists who have not been given a chance. It is just that record companies drive the process. It takes a bit of luck and compromise to get ahead. Musicians are not in control of their destiny.
Your standout efforts include Tones of Enlightment, Miles Davis’s Four and Quero Ser Feliz. What is the idea behind each?
[Tones] comes from a period in 1999 when I performed in Dubai and Oman. I included Four because I used to perform it on the cover circuit and I thought it would be nice to take a number that was performed as bebop and interpret it as a jazz standard since bepob is part of the music we grew up listening to and playing. Quero Ser Feliz is Portuguese for “I want to be happy”. I wrote the melody and asked Frank Paco to compose the Latin rhythm section.
Your work on Backstage what does it involve and does it in any way enhance your musicianship?
I write the mood music for the show and because you are constantly composing it allows you to grow as an artist.
From touring to promote this album, how would you compare the scene in Johannesburg and Cape Town?
In Johannesburg there is room for new ideas and to grow. In Cape Town [audiences] are content with the same stuff and cover versions.
How did you get into music?
I don’t know, because I do not come from a musical family. I am the first person in my family to play professionally. After moving with my family to Guguletu in 1985 and later to Khayelitsha, my father bought me a guitar and I just feel in love with the music.