Limelight
Meet the young guitarist who’s wowing virtuosos with his blend of jazz and rock.
WHEN AN ARTIST releases their debut album, they usually do so with little expectation weighed down upon them. But by the time Sicily-born guitarist Matteo Mancuso had written and recorded his first album, The Journey, he had Steve Vai and Tosin Abasi doting on his talents.
“It puts a lot of pressure on you,”he says with a mix of awe and fear,“but it’s a dream come true. All I want to do with my life is play and make music.”
As the guitarist began uploading original compositions to his YouTube channel in 2020, his eloquent blend of jazz delicacies and rock punch quickly began turning heads. Vai said that the evolution of the guitar was in safe hands with Mancuso, while Animals As Leaders’ guitarist Abasi hailed him as a“virtuoso beyond virtuosos”.
Raised by his father, an accomplished jazz guitarist in his own right, Mancuso benefited greatly from his tutelage.“I was fortunate enough to be able to play with him from the start of my journey,”he says.“He was a listening guide for me. He taught me about traditional jazz music, we’d play a lot of Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery together. It helped me understand where a lot of ideas I hear in other guitarists came from originally.”
The more Mancuso explored the guitar, the more personalised his playing became:“It’s an instrument where you can project a lot of your personality into it.
You don’t have to be the best player in the world; you just need to have your own approach to how you play. Those are the players that stand out.”
Musically, Mancuso’s personality is defined by not being definitive. He says,“I need my songs to have the power and t
