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Ndumiso Manana, simply known as Manana in music circles, wrapped up his album tour in Pretoria last weekend. Before this, he serenaded audiences at the National Arts Festival (NAF) in Makhanda in July, serving new music and fan favourites, and now the booked and busy musician is preparing for his Joy of Jazz debut happening later this month.
Build up to Joy of Jazz
Manana’s fans at the NAF didn’t only get to be the first to experience his new music live but were also serenaded with some of their favourite songs alongside a seven-piece band.
His infectious chemistry is about to spill over into the Sandton Convention Centre’s auditorium as the artist is preparing for his Joy of Jazz performance on Saturday 26 September.
The 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist award-winner (SBYA) for music describes JoJ as a space where people are open to new experiences-so much so that even those who go there with three or four artists in mind usually find themselves surprised by new artists. The festival, he adds, is a space of music discovery.
“This also gives us an opportunity to be experimental and arrange music in a way that typically we wouldn't for our own show, so we're going to try some new things with the music,” he says.
Manana’s approach to his performance sets has always been to perform his own music, and it’s even more critical to not fix what’s broken at this point in his life as he only released his new album It really isn't what it is last month.
So while he is open to performing covers or other artists’ work in the future, for now he will stick to his formula.
- What: Pulchritudinous (Manana’s performance at the Joy of Jazz)
- When: Saturday, 26 September
- Where: Sandton Convention Centre
- Cost: Single pass (Friday or Saturday) R1150, weekend pass R2250, VIP R9995 on Ticketmaster.
Standard Bank cardholders qualify for a discount of up to 15% off general admission when booking with a valid Standard Bank card.
Delving into the new album
The album opens with a track titled I've Gotta Say No, lamenting how his former partner was so broken over the split that her family was begging him to give it another chance.
He challenges my assertion that this is a heartbreak song, saying it’s more of an independent song where he breaks the cycle of back and forth with his lover.
“Psychologists always talk about how people gravitate towards brokenness because it's familiar and the human nature thing is more about familiarity than it is about comfort and healing,”
“Being alone is not nice. The human inclination is that it's better to be in familiar dysfunction than to be alone,” he explains.
Manana’s overall tempo is reminiscent of 1990s R&B but also doesn’t shy away from the current era’s fast pace.
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But the new album is more neo-soul than it is R&B. In fact, there is something very Maxwell (a neo-soul veteran from the US) about the song Calendar.
In a previous interview, Manana shared with me that his brother had introduced him to Maxwell and the late D'Angelo when they were growing up. He says this new album is the first time he has ever borrowed building blocks from his childhood musical memories for his own artistic architecture.
“When people ask about our musical influences I think it's easy to answer but I think it's hard to pick up typically because we don't always use the music that we grow up listening to in the music that we make,” he says.
The hard work put in by his team for the tour really paid off as he performed to sold-out venues despite there being no sponsorships and doing the tour independently. Manana says the love he has received from music lovers is one of the reasons he joined this industry.
It sounds like the artist too is ecstatic about this new release as he shares that this is the first time he has ever listened to a full album of his post-release.
He’s not dissing his old music though, explaining that every year he picks up new skills and expands his writing and production in the studio.
“The old music is beautiful and perfect as it is. I just think this is a more kind of holistic approach to my music and abilities,”
“In production, mixing and mastering you can do so many versions of the songs. By the time it comes out, I’ve probably been listening to the songs for about a year or two,” he adds.
Listen before you go It really Isn't What It Is on Spotify
It’s been said that some young people have old souls and Manana’s musical soul speaks to a similar maturity. His vocals are effortless and invoke nostalgia of the neo-soul superstars he consumed as a younger man.
Whoever started the “R&B is washed up” rumour has obviously never been to a Manana concert, otherwise, they’d know that this timeless genre continues to sell out.
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