29 May 2019 - 0 Comments

On 28th June 2019, drummer/producer/composer Myele Manzanza will release his eagerly anticipated third album A Love Requited on First Word Records UK.

Produced with award-winning Australian bassist & longtime musical collaborator Ross McHenry and featuring a plethora of New Zealand and Australia’s finest young instrumentalists, A Love Requited is as much a musical journey for Myele, as it is an attempt to come to terms with the life around him.

“A Love Requited is easily my most personal work to date and my hope is that beyond the music itself it may be of help to others if only to say that you're not alone in your struggle to make sense of the world”.

Myele has unveiled two new songs, Itaru’s Phone Booth and Mortality in the lead up to the album launch.

Itaru and Mortality incorporate hip hop & dance rhythms, the fluidity of modern jazz, & arrangements drawing from soulful hard bop & the big band tradition. It’s a great example of the breadth of influence that Manzanza draws from as a composer & drummer.

Both pieces are inspired by melancholic real-life events:

“For Itaru’s Phone Booth, I was listening to a podcast about a man in a small Japanese town called Itaru, who had installed an old English style phone booth on his property as a place he could go and “talk” to deceased loved ones. The town was almost totally ruined by the tsunami & earthquakes that rocked Japan in 2011, and over time the phone booth became a place where people could go to talk to their dead loved ones. Kids told their deceased parents about how they made the soccer team, or they had been diligent with their homework, and at other times adults struggled to communicate complicated feelings to their husbands or wives that were taken away.”

“The story made me reflect on the value of life, what I wished I could’ve said to people who’ve passed away and things that I struggle to bring up with people who are still here. The phone booth was a beautiful poetic image to tie those ideas together.”

Itaru's Phone Booth is currently premiering on international jazz blog Supreme Standards.

“Mortality’s melody seemed to just land in my lap in the middle of a dream I had. I figured out the basic structure of it and was listening on loop for a while when I heard the news that the great Polish DJ, promoter Maceo Wyro had passed away at a tragically early age."

“It was the first death of someone I knew personally, which is perhaps why it was so resonant for me. It seemed fitting to name the song in tribute to the price of impermanence that we all pay eventually, and the value that gives to life.”

In support of A Love Requited, Myele will be hitting the road in July, alongside a new superstar trio of Jonathan Crayford on keys & Johnny Lawrence on bass.

MYELE MANZANZA TOUR DATES:

Auckland - 10th July - CJC @ Anthology

Hastings - 11th July - Hastings Community Arts Centre

Wellington - 12th & 13th July - The Third Eye

Queenstown - 14th July - Yonder

Wanaka - 16th July - Gin & Raspberry

Christchurch - 17th July - Ara Music Arts

Tickets & info for the NZ tour can be found via www.myelemanzanza.com

Myele Manzanza’s new album A Love Requited is available for pre-order now via https://myelemanzanza.bandcamp.com/album/a-love-requited

Itaru’s Phone Booth and Mortality are available to stream via https://soundcloud.com/firstwordpromo/sets/myele-manzanza/s-QLUw4

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