Mac McKenzie :: Selected Recordings 1998-2009

The musical journey of Gerald Samuel “Mac” McKenzie is a diverse string of manifestations that spans a professional recording career of over twenty-five years. Despite surface differences, an indispensable denominator binds the brash punk riffs of the Genuines in 1986 to the sultry violin lines of the Cape Town Composers’ Workshop showcase in 2009. In a word, it’s goema. Here are some selected recordings to seek out and investigate:

► Namaqua - Daylight (1998)
1. The Mountain, Sand & Sea (G.S. McKenzie)
2. Daylight (G.S. McKenzie)
3. Stella by Starlight (V. Young)
4. Autumn Leaves (J. Mercer)
5. Green Dolphin Street (B. Kaper, N. Washington)
6. The Days of Wine & Roses (H. Mancini)
7. Concilia (G.S. McKenzie)
8. Café Camissa (G.S. McKenzie)
9. Donna Lee (M. Davis, C. Parker)

► The Goema Captains of Cape Town - Healing Destination (2004)
1. Alibama (Traditional | G.S. McKenzie)
2. Healing Destination (G.S. McKenzie)
3. Night March (Traditional | G.S. McKenzie)
4. Disentangled (G.S. McKenzie)
5. Red Rock City (G.S. McKenzie)
6. The Healing (G.S. McKenzie, H. Schilder)
7. To Wisdom (G.S. McKenzie)
8. Raa (G.S. McKenzie)
9. Goema Goema (Traditional | G.S. McKenzie)
10. Bolero (Ravel | G.S. McKenzie)
11. Goema Blues in F (G.S. McKenzie)

► Mac McKenzie - Live in Bridgetown (2009)
1. F-Major Goema (G.S. McKenzie)
2. The Healing (G.S. McKenzie, H. Schilder)
3. Colibri (Variation 1) (G.S. McKenzie)
4. D 76 (G.S. McKenzie)
5. F-Major Waltz (G.S. McKenzie)
6. Cape Town Dance (G.S. McKenzie)
7. Colibri (Variation 2) (G.S. McKenzie)













(See Goema Orchestra for 2010 recording) 
Photo © Sara Gouveia

Jou Ma Se Goema :: Film Teaser

Cape Town came about as a result of its location and the subsequent historic forces that were visited upon it. What emerged is a city with cultural and linguistic characteristics drawn from the disparate influences of Western Europe, Maritime Southeast Asia and Southern Africa (amongst others).

While Cape Town’s musicians take inspiration from the natural wonders that surround them, they inhabit an African city in the process of negotiating how it projects itself to the rest of the world. A place of musical diversity, modern Cape Town seeks to rise above tolerance to pursue meaningful cultural integration. This challenge is reflected in Cape Town’s oldest manifestation of authentic musical culture, Tweede Nuwe Jaar and the Coon Carnival.

The Carnival’s rhythm, Goema, initially a term describing the drums used in the minstrel parades and subsequently the name of the characteristic Cape beat that emerged from these drums, was adopted as a Cape Jazz idiom in the 20th century and has been interpreted through Rock, Hip-Hop and Electro in recent times. Modern usage of the word reflects a growing re-appraisal of Klopse culture and a new movement that defines Cape Town’s “sound” by the inventive blending of cultural influences.

(This teaser evolved into the documentary Mama Goema)