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Galt MacDermot (born 18 December 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.

He is best known as the composer of the groundbreaking 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.

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, Oh No in fact released an album on Stones Throw Records, produced completely with Galt MacDermot samples, entitled Exodus into Unheard Rhythms.

Contents 1 Shows 2 Ear of The Heart: A Documentary Feature on Galt MacDermot 3 Partial discography 4 External links

• My Fur Lady (1957)
• Hair (1967)
• Isabel's a Jezebel (1970)
• Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971)
• Dude (1973)
• Via Galactica (1973)
• The Human Comedy (1984)

Ear of the Heart: The Music of Galt MacDermot is a feature length documentary that surverys the composer’s life and musical career, weaving interviews, television and film clips, and cinema verite with a nonstop mix of MacDermot’s music.

You may know Galt MacDermot as the composer of HAIR, the American tribal love/rock musical that took the world by storm in 1968, and perhaps you know about Two Gentlemen of Verona, his other Broadway success from 1971. But what you may not know is that MacDermot has been flying under the radar for years, prolifically creating an astounding array of music over half a century: musicals, film scores, song cycles, jazz pieces, opera and ballet works. He won his first award, a Grammy, in 1961 for his composition “African Waltz”, which was recorded by Cannonball Adderlely.

MacDermot’s pioneering self-release record label Kilmarrnock paved the way for many artists to do-it-yourself and he is a big influence on the current generation of remixers and Hip Hop artists. His beats have been used in numerous Hip Hop releases including Run DMC’s hit Down with the King and Busta Rhymes’ Woo Hah! I Got You All in Check, both of which garnered him awards from ASCAP. his renewed interest in his work has spawned several anthology releases of the funkier tunes on Kilmarnock, and original pressings of the albums are hot items on ebay. Most recently the hiphop artist Ohno released Exodus into Unheard Rhythms, 22 tracks all based around the music of Galt MacDermot.

The film traces Galt’s childhood in Montreal and the origins of this musical interest, which led him to study music at the University of Capetown, South Africa in 1950, an experience which was crucial to the development of his distinctive musical style which incorporates elements of gospel, jazz, reggae, and African rhythms. It follows his career through Montreal, London and ultimately New York, where the struggling musician was to make his name as the composer of the “hippie musical”, only to have fame on the Great White Way elude him after a series of so-called flops (some of which contain his most beautiful songs.) But not one to give up, MacDermot follows his own beat, and continues to this day composing and performing with his ensemble, the New Pulse Jazz Band.

The title of the film “Ear Of The Heart” is derived from a song from his musical The Human Comedy:

Beautiful music is in the air, beautiful music is everywhere, It’s in the eye of the mind, in the ear of the heart, Beautiful music created by science and by art…

According to MacDermot, the words are written first and then he sets them to music. He listens with his heart as the lyrics speak to him, and the music is derived from the words themselves. All of his songs are infused with a spiritual, humanist point of view whether exploring love, death, social injustice, anti-war themes, personal relationships, human nature, or man’s relationship with the divine.

The film explores the cultural significance of MacDermot’s music. Many of his works have a strong anti-war sentiment. Hair, which was one of the first Broadway shows to address current issues such as the Vietnam war, retains its relevance to this day, and continues to be performed across the globe. Dude, which was written with Gerry Ragni of Hair, is an allegory of man’s spiritual quest, which starts in the Garden of Eden and ends with the angels in heaven, with a cataclysmic war in between, and a country western-flavored score. Isabel’s a Jezebel, the first of MacDermot’s many collaborations with fellow Canadian expat Bill Dumaresq, is one of the first shows to take on the subject of abortion. The Human Comedy was MacDermot’s last collaboration with Dumaresq in 1984, portrays life and death in a small California town during WWII. With Matty Selman, MacDermot’s current writing partner, he has created two recent musicals - The Goddess Wheel, based on Lysistrata, is the original anti-war play written by Aristophanes in 411B.C., and The Tinder Box, based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale (which in turn is based on an Arabian Nights story), set in modern-day Baghdad. All of these works are represented in the film.

The backbone of the film is a series of performances with the New Pulse Jazz Band, shot over a month of Mondays in summer 2007 at the West Bank Café in NYC. In addition to great work by Patience Higgins, Allen Won, Vince MacDermot, John Frosk, Wilbur Bascomb, Bernard Purdie, singers Catrice Joseph Hart, Melanie Po and Luther Creek add their talents to the mix to present some unforgettable music.

• Hair
• Hair Pieces - on Verve Forecast (1967)
• Corporation
• Shapes of Rhythm/Woman is Sweeter
• Up From the Basement Volumes 1 & 2
• Purdie as a Picture

• Galt MacDermot's Official Website
• Ear of the Heart: the Music of Galt MacDermot
• Galt MacDermot's Discography
• Galt MacDermot's Free Streaming Music
• Galt MacDermot's MySpace Page
• Galt MacDermot's Photo Gallery
• Galt MacDermot's Full Biography
• Galt MacDermot's New Pulse Jazz Band
• Galt MacDermot at the Internet Movie Database
• Galt MacDermot at the Internet Broadway Database

v • d • e Galt MacDermot musicals
My Fur Lady • Hair • Isabel's a Jezebel • Two Gentlemen of Verona • Dude • Via Galactica • The Human Comedy

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