Answering myself after a little more digging...
Here is the solution: Timemap is above the player? - #5 by Mahekaru
So a code snippet of my new scene init()
local tileset = gfx.imagetable.new("assets/images/tilemap-table-20-20.png")
self.tilemap = gfx.tilemap.new()
self.tilemap:setImageTable(tileset)
...
self.tilemap:setTiles(myLevel, 16)
gfx.sprite.addWallSprites(self.tilemap, { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 })
self.tileSprite = gfx.sprite.new()
self.tileSprite:setTilemap(self.tilemap)
self.tileSprite:setZIndex(0)
self.tileSprite:setCenter(0, 0)
self.tileSprite:moveTo(0, 0)
self.tileSprite:add()
And just remove the tilemap:draw() call on the scene update method.
And now it works like a charm