Chris McGregor(1936-1990)
- Composer
Chris McGregor was a pianist and arranger who loved people and the
music of the people. His starting point was always the people - when he
arranged he arranged parts for a specific person. His own songs were
usually about people - Bakwetha, Maxine, Andromeda, Mandisa. Even when
the name did not reflect it his songs were about people - Mayibuye is a
song for Nelson Mandela, Dakar celebrates the ground-breaking meeting
of people from the liberation movement with people from South Africa.
His music rhythmically and harmonically was rooted in the music of the
amaXhosa people among whom he grew up, and the sounds of the Xhosa
students singing, in their own inimitable way, the music of the
Scottish Church. But his music was not in any way an exercise in
nostalgia - he was passionately concerned about issues of the day,
environmental degradation, the politics of exploitation, racism, the
nuclear threat. All of these were part of his experience and showed in
various ways in his music which was sophisticated without being
esoteric. People could and did dance to his music. Wherever he played
he spread joy and fun. Because he believed in people and wanted his
music to be for the people.