Question for Manyasa Hibernation

At the risk of sounding ignorant I have chosen hibernation although what I wanted to mention was death. 

But going by several interviews that I have come across I am sure that Manyasa, a Jazz band that legendary Wambali Mkandawire created when he brought together Collen Matola, Lemekeza Phiri, Vita Chirwa and Dan Sibale, among others might as well be as good as dead.

Here is why: When Mtebeti Wambali Mkandawire launched his ninth album titled Calabrash Breath on July 25, 2015 at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe he was backed by a different outfit.

He had artists like Dan on Sax, Greciam Mokwena on keyboard, Amos Mlolowah on drums, and a Zambian guitarist called Emmanuel on lead guitar, Congolese on bass player and someone called DT on percussions.

Wambali says he decided to form Manyasa which had talented artists drawn from various expanses, using his own money. This might be speculated that it was a venture difficult to sustain. Of course, he said people started hiring them but then things changed … he could not go into the other details.

Rightly put, Wambali considered doing a jazz album with Manyasa titled Up and Down the Shire as a means of testing the waters. And the time, he felt the audience was there.

In the 2015 interview with Times Media, Wambali observed that in Malawi we have ‘a very abortive sort of culture’; where we do not build on what we have established. He was of the view that the foundations are the ones that are weak.

Most of Malawi music, Wambali opined, is instant, which cannot last for generations, and therefore the country does need some music that few generations can build on and he picked jazz as one such genre.

And build he has done with the Manyasa album and just as he rightly said, displayed the very character of Malawi’s music industry which fails to build on the established foundation.

As media practitioners in the entertainment arena, we have not asked tough questions. Manyasa came from no where and without any deferential explanation just disappeared into the doldrums.

This was such a good thing that happened to music and if it had been properly guided to last, surely some pride would have been salvaged.

There were contradictions in the said interview where at one-point Wambali discredited the assertion that he is the first one who thought of jazz as our escape route because artists like Isaac Mkukupha had once taken up to jazz.

Kalimba also used to have jazz afternoons, but the major breakthrough in jazz in Malawi according to Wambali has been Erik Paliani with his release of the album Chitukutuku. He decried Malawians’ failure to do this album justice.

Considering that these were just suggestions and words that have not been perpetuated to a point that can show tangible direction, we can as well blame the gods of music for taking us aloft the desirable heights with   Up and Down the Shire and Chitukutuku and left us in suspense.

Yes, lately, we have had jazz festivals but I doubt if we have sat down and assess if such endeavours have taken us to a direction that will be called successful in terms of what it will do to the established genre for Malawi as well as lifting the socio-economic status of those involved in this jazz music business.

The world has favoured some of us to travel across the globe and when people demand Malawi music all we have to do is introduce them to Paliani or Wambali. Once they listen to it tongues wag incessantly in appreciation of what we have as our music treasure trove.

Many questions keep bobbling up as to what could be the trick to clutch on this music and ensure that we treat it as seed that we can plant in the soil for a bounty harvest. Of course, music is an art that, much as it can be supported with attendant resources, you cannot have 100 Wambali Mkandawires. It is for this fact that I still think we still need to ask questions what happened to Manyasa and of course to Wambali.  

We were made to taste good music when Up and Down the Shire was offered to us. It is a well thought production that colleagues from across the borders keep asking me when such good music will be on offer again.