Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot (December 18, 1928 – December 17, 2018) was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theater. He won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for the song "

African Waltz ''African Waltz'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, released on the Riverside label and performed by Adderley with an orchestra conducted by Ernie Wilkins.

" in 1960. His most successful musicals were ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

'' (1967; its cast album also won a Grammy) and '' Two Gentlemen of Verona'' (1971). MacDermot also composed film soundtracks, jazz and funk albums, and classical music. His music has been sampled in numerous hip-hop songs and albums. He is best known for his work on ''Hair'', which produced three number-one singles in 1969: "

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In "Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (commonly called "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", "The Age of Aquarius" or "Let the Sunshine In") is a medley of two songs written for the 1967 musical ''Hair'' by James Rado and Gerome Ragni (lyrics), and ...

", " Good Morning Starshine", and the title song, "

Biography

MacDermot was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, the son of Canadian diplomat Terence MacDermot and Elizabeth Savage. He was educated at

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an independent day and boarding school for boys in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as Canada's most prestigious preparatory school, and ha ...

and

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

(

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

, Quebec, Canada). He received a bachelor's degree in music from

Cape Town University The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Afri ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and made a study of

African music The continent of Africa is vast and its music is diverse, with different regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres like makwaya, highlife, mbube, township music, jùjú, fuji, jaiva ...

his specialty. He studied the piano privately with Neil Chotem."Galt MacDermot"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. During his time in Cape Town, he met his future wife, Marlene Bruynzeel, a clarinetist of Dutch descent. They married in 1956 and had five children (Vincent, Molly, Yolanda and twins Sarah and Jolanthe, who died one day apart in 2020). In 1960, he won his first

for

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the 1966 soul ...

's recording of his song "African Waltz" (from the album of the same name). In 1964, MacDermot moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where, three years later, he wrote the music for the hit musical ''

'', which he later adapted for the 1979 film of the same name. Its Broadway cast album won a

in 1969, and the musical generated three number-one singles that year: "

", " Good Morning Starshine", and the title song "

". His next musicals were '' Isabel's a Jezebel'' (1970) and ''Who the Murderer Was'' (1970), which featured British progressive rock band Curved Air. MacDermot had another hit with the musical '' Two Gentlemen of Verona'' (1971), which won the

Tony Award for Best Musical The Tony Award for Best Musical is given annually to the best new Broadway musical, as determined by Tony Award voters. The award is one of the ceremony's longest-standing awards, having been presented each year since 1949. The award goes to the ...

. For that show, MacDermot was nominated for a Tony for best music and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. His later musicals, including ''

Dude ''Dude'' is Regional vocabularies of American English, American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous ...

'' and '' Via Galactica'' (both 1972) and '' The Human Comedy'' (1984), were not successful on Broadway, running 16 performances, 7 performances, and 13 performances respectively. MacDermot's

film soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

s include ''

Cotton Comes to Harlem ''Cotton Comes to Harlem'' is a 1970 American neo-noir action comedy film co-written and directed by Ossie Davis and starring Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, and Redd Foxx. The film, later cited as an early example of the blaxploita ...

'', a 1970

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

film starring

Godfrey Cambridge Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge (February 26, 1933 – November 29, 1976) was an American stand-up comic and actor. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by ''Time'' in 1965 as "one of the country's foremost cel ...

, Raymond St. Jacques, and

Redd Foxx John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movemen ...

, based on Chester Himes's novel of the same name; ''

Rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

'' (1974) starring

Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters including Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and o ...

and

Gene Wilder Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and filmmaker. He was mainly known for his comedic roles, including his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Fa ...

, and directed by original Broadway ''Hair'' director Tom O'Horgan; and ''

Mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a female lover of a married man ** Royal mistress * Maîtresse-en-titre, official mistress of a ...

'' (1992). He wrote his own orchestrations and arrangements for his theater and film scores. In 1979, MacDermot formed the ''New Pulse Jazz Band'', which performed and recorded his original music and was one of the first jazz bands to feature

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

. The band played as part of the onstage band in the 2009 Broadway revival of ''Hair''. MacDermot's oeuvre also includes ballet scores, chamber music, the Anglican liturgy, orchestral music, poetry,

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...

for plays, band repertory, and opera. In 2009, MacDermot was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. On November 22, 2010, MacDermot was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by SOCAN at the 2010 SOCAN Awards in Toronto.

Death

MacDermot died at his home in

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

on December 17, 2018, the day before his 90th birthday.

Samples and other use

MacDermot's music is popular with collectors of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

. Working with jazz musicians such as

Bernard Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul, funk and jazz musician. He is known for his precise time-keeping and his signature use of Tuplet, triplets against a half-time backbeat: the P ...

, Jimmy Lewis and

Idris Muhammad Idris Muhammad (; born Leo Morris; November 13, 1939 – July 29, 2014) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He had an extensive career performing jazz, funk, Rhythm and blues, R&B, and Soul music, soul music and recorded with musicians s ...

, he created pieces that prefigured the funk material of

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

. In more recent decades, his work became popular with

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

musicians including

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

, who sampled "Space" from MacDermot's 1969 record ''Woman Is Sweeter'' for the smash-hit " Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check", and

Run DMC Run-DMC (also formatted Run-D.M.C., RUN DMC, or some combination thereof) was an American hip-hop group formed in Hollis, Queens, New York City in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jam Master Jay, Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as ...

, which sampled the ''Hair'' song "Where Do I Go?" in its Grammy Award-winning " Down with the King".

Handsome Boy Modeling School Handsome Boy Modeling School is an American collaborative project between hip hop producers Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030) and Prince Paul ( Stetsasonic, De La Soul, Gravediggaz). The collaboration originally lasted ...

("The Truth"), DJ Vadim, DJ Premier and Oh No have all sampled the same segment from "Coffee Cold", from ''Shapes of Rhythm'' (1966). Scottish electronica duo

Boards of Canada Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of the brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin. Signing first to Skam Records, Skam followed by Warp (record label), Warp Records in the 1990s, they received recognition following th ...

used a loop in their track " Aquarius" (''

Music Has the Right to Children ''Music Has the Right to Children'' is the debut studio album by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada, released on 20 April 1998 in the United Kingdom by Warp (record label), Warp and Skam Records and in the United States by Matador Rec ...

'') which was sampled from MacDermot's song of the same name from the 1979 soundtrack of the film ''Hair''. As part of his Special Herbs series, rapper MF DOOM sampled three MacDermot songs from ''Woman Is Sweeter'': "Cathedral" for his song "Pennyroyal", "Space" for "Cinquefoil", and "Princess Gika" for "Styrax Gum". "Cathedral" is also sampled in

Westside Gunn Alvin Lamar Worthy (born July 27, 1982), known professionally as Westside Gunn, is an American Rapping, rapper and fashion designer. He co-founded the Independent record label, hip-hop record label Griselda Records in 2012 with his paternal half- ...

's "Dear Winter Bloody Fiegs" for his 2015 mixtape ''Hitler Wears Hermes 3''. In 2006, rapper and producer Oh No released an album produced completely with MacDermot samples, titled '' Exodus into Unheard Rhythms''.

Shows

* '' My Fur Lady'' (1957) * ''

'' (1967) * '' Isabel's a Jezebel'' (1970) * ''Who the Murderer Was'' (1970) * '' Two Gentlemen of Verona'' (1971) * ''

'' (1973) * '' Via Galactica'' (1973) * '' The Human Comedy'' (1984) * ''The Special'' (1985) * '' Time and the Wind'' (1995) * ''The Legend of Joan of Arc'' (1997) * ''Sun'' (1998) * ''Blondie'' (1998) * ''The Corporation'' (1999) * ''Gone Tomoro'' (2009)

Discography

(excluding cast albums and soundtracks) *''Art Gallery Jazz'' (1960) *''African Waltz (1960)'' *''The English Experience'' (1961) *''Galt MacDermot by Arrangement'' (1963) *''Shapes of Rhythm'' (1966) *''Hair Cuts'' (1969) *''Woman is Sweeter'' (1969) *''Galt MacDermot's First Natural Hair Band''(1970) *''The Nucleus'' (1971) *''Ghetto Suite'' (1972) *'' Salome Bey Sings Songs From Dude'' (1972) *''The Highway Life'' (1973) *''Take This Bread: A Mass in our Time'' (1973) *''Memphis Dude'' (1973) *''La Novela'' (1973) *''The Karl Marx Play'' (1973) *''The Joker Of Seville (Trinidad Theatre Workshop Original Cast Album)''(1974) *''New Pulse Jazz Band'' (1979) *''O Babylon!'' (1980) *''Pulse On!'' (1981) *''New Pulse Jazz Band III'' (1983) *''Boogie Man'' (1985) *''Lost Conquest (Conquista Perdida)'' (1986) *''Purdie as a Picture'' (1994) *''Reflections of a Radically Right Wing Composer'' (1992) *''The

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

Songs'' (1997) *''El Niño'' (1998) *''Up from the Basement Volumes 1 & 2'' (2000) *''Corporation'' (2000) *''Spotted Owl'' (2000) *''Live In Nashville'' (2000) *''Foolish Lover'' (2001) *''

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...

in Song'' (2001) *''Waiting For The Limo'' (2003) *''In Film'' (2004) *''Asian Suite'' (2005) *''Many Faces of Song'' (2009) *''Sun'' (2009) *''The Sun Always Shines for the Cool'' (2014) *''Air & Angels'' (2017)

References

External links

* and archival pages:
Galt MacDermot's Discography

Ear of the Heart: the Music of Galt MacDermotGalt MacDermot's MySpace PageGalt MacDermot's Photo Gallery
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdermot, Galt 1928 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Canadian male composers 20th-century Canadian pianists 21st-century Canadian male composers 21st-century Canadian pianists Anglophone Quebec people Bishop's University alumni Broadway composers and lyricists Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian musical theatre composers Male musical theatre composers Canadian people of Jamaican descent Grammy Award winners Galt MacDermot Musicians from Montreal South African College of Music alumni Upper Canada College alumni Writers from Montreal