Galt MacDermot

Galt MacDermot (born December 18, 1928 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian pianist, composer and writer of musical theatre. He was educated at Upper Canada College and Bishop's University (Sherbrooke, Quebec). He was trained in music in South Africa and made a study of African music his specialty.

Galt wrote the music for Cotton Comes to Harlem, a 1970 blaxploitation film starring Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, and Redd Foxx based on Chester Himes' novel of the same name.

He is best known as the composer of the 1960s rock musical "Hair", which ran for nearly 2000 performances in both London and New York, won a Grammy Award in 1969, and was made into a film in 1979 [citeweb |url=http://www.geocities.com/hairpages/macder.html |title=The Hair Pages.] .

Galt's follow up musical entitled "Who the Murderer Was" [citeweb |url=http://www.curvedair.com/sonjapage.htm |title=Who the Murderer Was] featured British progressive rock band Curved Air.

MacDermot is also popular amongst collectors of jazz, funk and film soundtracks, for the scores he created to minor productions such as "Woman is Sweeter" and "Rhinoceros". Working with high-calibre jazz musicians such as Bernard Purdie, Jimmy Lewis and Idris Muhammad, MacDermot created tight, rhythmical soundtrack pieces which effectively prefigured the funk material of James Brown. Consequently, MacDermot's work from this period has been sampled by hip-hop musicians including Busta Rhymes, who borrowed "Space" for "Woo hah!!", and Handsome Boy Modelling School, DJ Vadim, DJ Premier and Oh No (rapper), who have all sampled the same segment from "Coffee Cold".

On 8 August 2006, rapper Oh No released an album produced completely with Galt MacDermot samples, entitled "Exodus into Unheard Rhythms", on Stones Throw Records.

hows

* "My Fur Lady" (1957)
* "Hair" (1967)
* "Isabel's a Jezebel" (1970)
* "Who the Murderer Was" (1970)
* "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1971)
* "Dude" (1973)
* "Via Galactica" (1973)
* "The Human Comedy" (1984)

Partial Discography

*"Art Gallery Jazz (1956)"
*"The English Experience (1961)"
*"Hair - Pieces (1967)"
*"Corporation"
*"Shapes of Rhythm/Woman is Sweeter"
*"Up From the Basement Volumes 1 & 2"
*"Purdie as a Picture"

External links

* [http://www.galtmacdermot.com Galt MacDermot's Official Website ]
* [http://www.earoftheheartthemovie.com Ear of the Heart: the Music of Galt MacDermot]
* [http://galtmacdermot.com/downloads.htm Galt MacDermot's Discography]
* [http://galtmacdermot.com/streaming.htm Galt MacDermot's Free Streaming Music]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=91418026 Galt MacDermot's MySpace Page]
* [http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x221/macdermot/ Galt MacDermot's Photo Gallery]
* [http://galtmacdermot.com/aboutgalt.htm Galt MacDermot's Full Biography]
* [http://galtmacdermot.com/newpulse.htm Galt MacDermot's New Pulse Jazz Band]
*imdb name | id=0531581| name=Galt MacDermot
*ibdb name | id=12086| name=Galt MacDermot

References

Persondata
NAME=MacDermot, Galt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Canadian pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH=December 18 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH=Montreal, Quebec
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=