Manley
Chaos, Freelance Writer
DELLA MANLEY, nee Magnus, says she was 'terrified' when The Sunday Gleaner contacted her for this interview. She had no reason to be, since one can say, unreservedly, that singer-songwriter Della Manley is one of the most interesting persons on a planet with a population that runs into the billions.
Describing her, really getting to know her, almost defies words, but here The Sunday Gleaner shall make an attempt. The 43-year-old (although she looks nothing close to that age), five feet, one inch tall woman is a treat to listen to and talk with, she cares nothing about convention and defies anything about the same. Della Manley sings a unique blend of folk, jazz and to some extent pop music, which is enough in the land of reggae and dancehall to set her apart from the mainstream and make her an object of interest.
No longer terrified, but somewhat 'stressed', when she spoke with The Sunday Gleaner, Della gave a small glimpse into what has been an eventful life. Married to an evidently wonderful husband, Joseph Manley, for the past 23 years, she did high school until age 15 at Mount Alvernia High School in Montego Bay, St. James before her family took up roots and moved to Canada. She then went to a school called Norwell in Clifford in that country, which she describes as "...really the middle of nowhere. It was in the snow belt..." before going on to tell of her move to Mississauga, where she did 'G 13', the Canadian version of sixth form at Applewood Heights.
She then started university, studying French and Spanish, but a spanner fell into the works. Love. Somehow or the other, Della managed to fall in love and get married to Joseph Manley, the son of the late former Prime Minister Michael Manley, who was in Cuba studying Economics at the University of Havana in Cuba at the time.
"One day I came back to Jamaica the same day he (Joseph) left. I had known him practically all my life, so I called him up just to say hello. We wrote each other and called, we both came back to Jamaica and wrote to the family, inviting them to the wedding. My father hit the roof! He said 'Hello, we're not Chinese. If you must get married, I'm putting it on'. We got married in Canada, passed through Jamaica and a week later we went to school in Cuba," she explained.
The petite and incredibly beautiful Della Manley was a constant source of movement throughout the interview. Her face was constantly in motion throughout, as she drank some water she had got earlier because she was still a bit nervous and later on, a cup of coffee. In Cuba, she spent a year in compulsory 'Immersion', learning Spanish before going to start a five-year degree at the University of Havana in which she was basically translating Spanish to French. However, she did only two years before returning to Jamaica with her husband. Here she did finally complete a degree in Spanish at the University of The West Indies, Mona.
Currently unemployed except as a singer and mother to two daughters, Rhea, 13, and Maya, 11, she has worked as a waitress, at an ice cream parlour and worked as an interpreter in Canada, while here she has taught Spanish to children at St. Andrew Prepatory, been a secretary at the Peruvian Embassy, painted T-shirts and boxes and taught English to foreigners at the Language Training Centre. For the record, Della Manley did not enjoy life as a teacher. "I really didn't like it. The boys were so... frenetic, and the students used to come up to me and pat me on the head and say how nice I was." A statement which brought an incredulous stare from The Sunday Gleaner. "Yes, and I couldn't deal with how some of the students didn't really love Spanish," something she really adores, she said.
All has not been roses for Della Manley, or more to the point, there have been thorns. For years she went through violent bouts of depression, which were symptomised by a rapidly beating heart and a feeling of not knowing who she was, among other things. Why? "I have no clue... I think sometimes it was a chemical imbalance... I don't know. I don't know if I want the whole world to know about my depression...," she said, before relenting, "I don't know, maybe it can help somebody," and telling of, after years of different doctors and prescription drugs which were of absolutely no help, she met Dr. Donavon White, who practices 'natural' medicine and managed to turn Della's life around.
"I'm thinking it was chemical... all the MSG and so on I was eating. Nowadays I can't eat anything with preservatives, I can eat chicken maybe once, twice a week," she said. At the moment she says "I haven't felt this good in a long, long time. There have been long bouts of ... this has been a very good year. I'm feeling quite happy in my skin."
Her husband Joseph had this to say, after banter about the hiding of his favourite cookies and a loving request if his wife wanted anything, "Della was blank. For eight or nine years, she would surface for maybe one or two days a month, but otherwise she would be extremely blank. If you had talken to her then, you would have gotten a totally different impression," he said.
Later on, when asked to describe his wife's mind he said "Profoundly illogic. Della has a... chaotic mind. There is no linear logic. Always entertaining, perpetually surprising - which makes conversation a little difficult at times."
"That's it - non-linear," Della chips in. She in turn had described her mind as "... very sort of random... cinematographic at times... it's not very logical."
This is just one of the things that make her such an interesting individual. To quote her husband, "I have been married to her for over 20 years and there are times I don't think I understand her," he laughed.
On to her music.
Della's parents bought her elder brother a guitar, which he was not exactly interested in, so his sister 'adopted' it. She sang on choirs and "...growing up I played in churches, there were a lot of 'folk' masses, it was the time Father Holung came up with Sinner (a Jamaican creole hymn), they were making much more accessible hymns then." When asked to describe herself as a singer she said "I've been influenced mostly by folk and jazz, I wouldn't say I am a jazz singer, definitely not."
She released her first and only album to date, Ashes On The Windowsill, in Christmas 1997, although it was launched officially in March of 1998. A beautiful piece of work, it has sometimes been described as too melancholy, a charge she admits is somewhat true. The songs on it, she says, were coming out of her depression and reflect the same. Her new album, due out next year, will be more upbeat. "I know this album is not melancholic - you just have to get out of the box, show that the world is not such a bitter place." The album as yet to be finished for a variety of reasons, which includes what Della calls 'the national virus - a lack of funds' and "I want to find a really good studio... I have songs that need arranging and that's it," she said.
Her career was greatly aided by a man she has a lot of respect for, producer Ray Hitchens, at whose studio, Riverside, Ashes was made. "Ashes. (the song) was sang for my in-laws Michael and Beverly (Manley) and they said I had to record this, it was like an assignment (laughing). Bev got ahold of Fab Five and we went into the studio and did a version-- Michael sent a copy to Harry Belafonte and got absolutely no response! I used to work strange gigs, like cocktail parties, I sang at grandmother-in-laws, Lucien Chen saw me and said ''Miss World' is coming and you must open for Carlene Davis'. That was disastrous, as Erica Allen said 'I'd like to introduce Della Manley' there was this big boo... it was at that time when everyone hated anything named Manley," she reminisced. Somewhere in the process she met Hitchens and Ashes On the Windowsill was born.
Marrying into Jamaica's arguably most famous family affected her in more ways than one. "Having known Michael and Beverly and everybody, it has affected my career. They affected the way I think. If I had stayed in Canada I would have been singing different things, so in that way I guess they affected my career.
"The name Manley comes with certain... baggage. People ask if you related, either they like you or they don't. I've gotten used to it," she stated.
The Sunday Gleaner also asked Della Manley about her tendency to hold back when she sings live, never tending to cut loose with the range and power her voice clearly has. She said "I think that's because of insecurity. Sometimes in rehearsal, when I'm totally relaxed with the musicians, I just let go... but everytime I do more gigs, I get more relaxed, so soon..."
At the end of the day, Della Manley, singer, songwriter, mother and so much more is a contradiction. Open yet an enigma in some ways, she is beautiful, interesting, wonderful and very, very talented.
