African beats to boogie all night

Sam Manzanza and his Afro Beat Band promise Napier audiences will feel their music in their heart and soul when they play at The Cabana on January 22.

Napier will be the next stop for the Congolese musician who has been popularising African music and getting audiences on their feet for nearly 30 years.

Sam Manzanza's unique rhythmic music has been a feature on the New Zealand music scene since he moved here in 1988.

Manzanza says audiences at his performances "might not come with their dancing shoes on, but shoes or no shoes they will be dancing".

He says audiences can't sit still when he performs his unique "four-beat Manzanza style", no matter which country the Wellington-based musician is in.

"They accept your music, the feeling of it. They might not understand the words but they don't need to, music is the universal language."

Manzanza sings in four different languages - French, Lingala, English and African Pidgin English - while his music is a mix of traditional and modern African music, blended with ska and reggae.

He composes his own music performed by Afro Beat Band, the group he leads.

"I like to compose because the music is a style already known but it has my own flavour and when people hear it they say 'that's Sam, that's Sam's sound'.

"We make music that people can come and dance to, music you can feel in your heart and soul - I always say if they have a problem they forget it when they hear us.

"That's what I like, that's my job to make people people happy."

This ensures that while there are other bands in New Zealand which play African music, Manzanza says no other band has Afro Beat's style.

"There's a lot on energy and people like that, they jump up and dance, you can't sit still."

Over the summer Afro Beat had been performing at venues ranging from Queenstown to Auckland and would be heading to Wellington to continue the tour after visiting Napier.

Mr Manzanza says summer is the only time Afro Beat can tour as other members of the band work - during the rest of the year their performances are confined to weekends.

Manzanza himself is a "full- time musician" and when he isn't performing with Afro Beat he is teaching drumming workshops, visiting schools or doing solo performances.

-To catch Sam Manzanza and Afro Beat Band head to The Cabana on January 22. Door sales are $15 and the show starts at 9.30pm.