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Biography
Galt MacDermot (born December 18, 1928) is a Canada|Canadian composer , pianist and writer of musical theatre . He won a Grammy Award for the song African Waltz in 1960. His most successful musicals have been Hair (musical)|Hair (1967; its cast album also won a Grammy) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (musical)|Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). MacDermot has also written music for film soundtracks, jazz and funk albums, and classical music, and his music has been sampled in hit hip-hop songs and albums.
Biography
MacDermot was born in Montreal , Quebec , the son of a Canadian diplomat. He was educated at Upper Canada College and Bishop's University ( Sherbrooke , Quebec, Canada). He received a Bachelor of Music from Cape Town University , South Africa and made a study of African music his specialty. He also studied the piano privately with Neil Chotem . http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm? PgNm=TCE& Params=U1ARTU0000709 Neil Chotem at thecanadianencyclopedia.com
MacDermot won his first Grammy Award for the Cannonball Adderley recording of his song "African Waltz" in 1960. http://www.galtmacdermot.com MacDermot's Official Website, accessed July 1, 2009 He moved to New York City in 1964 where, three years later, he wrote the music for the hit musical theatre|musical Hair (musical)|Hair , which he later adapted for Hair (film)|the 1979 film . Its Broadway theatre|Broadway cast album won a Grammy Awards of 1969|Grammy Award in 1969 .Cite web |url= http://www.geocities.com/hairpages/macder.html |title=The Hair Pages.|archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20091027124943/ http://www.geocities.com/hairpages/macder.html|archivedate=2009-10-27 His next musicals were '' Isabel's a Jezebel (1970) and Who the Murderer Was (1970), which featured British progressive rock band Curved Air .Cite web |url= http://www.curvedair.com/sonjapage.htm |title=Who the Murderer Was MacDermot had another hit with the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona (musical)|Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971), which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. For that show, MacDermot was nominated for a Tony for best music and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music . His later musicals, however, including Dude (musical)|Dude and Via Galactica (both 1973) and The Human Comedy (musical)|The Human Comedy (1984), have not been successful on Broadway.
MacDermot's film soundtrack s include 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; Rhinoceros (film)|Rhinoceros (1974) starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder , and directed by original Broadway Hair director Tom O'Horgan ; and Mistress (1992 film)|Mistress (1992). His composition Coffee Cold was heard in the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film)|The Thomas Crown Affair .Citation needed|date=October 2010 He writes his own orchestrations and arrangements for his theatre and film scores.
MacDermot's music is popular with collectors of jazz and funk . Working with jazz musicians such as Bernard Purdie , Jimmy Lewis (musician)|Jimmy Lewis and Idris Muhammad , MacDermot created pieces that prefigured the funk material of James Brown (musician)|James Brown . In recent decades, his work has become popular with Hip hop music|hip-hop musicians including Busta Rhymes , who sampled "Space" from MacDermot's 1969 record Woman Is Sweeter http://www.discogs.com/artist/Galt+MacDermot Galt MacDermot discography, discogs.com for chart-topper " Woo Hah!& #33; Got You All in Check|Woo hah!! ", and Run DMC , who sampled the Hair song "Where Do I Go? " for their Grammy Award-winning " Down with the King (song)|Down with the King ". Handsome Boy Modelling School , DJ Vadim , DJ Premier and Oh No (rapper)|Oh No have all sampled the same segment from "Coffee Cold", from Shapes of Rhythm (1966). 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 "Cinqfoil", and "Princess Gika" for "Hyssop". http://www.metalfacedoom.com/ MF Doom In 2006, rapper Oh No released an album produced completely with MacDermot samples, entitled Exodus into Unheard Rhythms . http://www.stonesthrow.com/ohno/ Oh No | Stones Throw Records
In 1979, MacDermot formed the New Pulse Band, which performs and records his original music. The band plays as part of the on stage band in the current Broadway revival of Hair . MacDermot's work also includes ballet scores, chamber music, the Anglican liturgy, orchestral music, poetry, incidental music for plays, band repertory and opera. MacDermot was inducted into the 2009 Songwriter's Hall of Fame .
Film director Jeff Lunger is in the post-production phase of a documentary on the life and work of Galt MacDermot. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386612/ Ear of the Heart: The Music of Galt MacDermot, imdb.com, retrieved May 14, 2010
Shows
My Fur Lady (1957)
Hair (musical)|Hair (1967)
'' Isabel's a Jezebel (1970)
Who the Murderer Was (1970)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (musical)|Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971)
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
Galt MacDermotDramaDesk Music 1969–1975 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= DEFAULTSORT:Macdermot, Galt Category:1928 births Category:Canadian songwriters Category:Canadian musical theatre composers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Montreal Category:Musicians from New York City Category:People from Staten Island Category:South African College of Music alumni Category:Upper Canada College alumni
