# Galt MacDermot Canadian-American composer, 1928–2018. Best known as the composer behind the score for *Hair* (1967), the landmark "American tribal love-rock musical" that brought countercultural rock music to Broadway and produced multiple No. 1 hit singles. Beyond that single towering achievement, he had a long, eclectic career spanning musical theatre, jazz, funk, and film scoring, and his instrumental recordings have been extensively sampled in hip-hop. ## Background Full name Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot, born 18 December 1928 in Montreal, the son of a Canadian diplomat. Grew up in a musical household (recorder and violin as a child) before shifting toward American jazz as a teenager and taking up piano. Studied at Bishop's University and then at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, before moving to New York in 1964 to pursue music professionally. ## Hair and Broadway career In 1967, music publisher Nat Shapiro connected MacDermot with actors Gerome Ragni and James Rado, who had sketched out the book and loose plot for a musical about 1960s counterculture, hippie life, and the Vietnam War draft. MacDermot's score for the resulting show, *Hair*, fused rock, soul, and pop songwriting with Broadway theatricality in a way that hadn't really been done before — a genuinely significant moment in bringing contemporary popular music onto the Broadway stage. The show produced three No. 1 singles in 1969 via other artists' cover versions: "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (the 5th Dimension), "Good Morning Starshine," and the title song. The Broadway cast album won a Grammy in 1969. He followed with *Two Gentlemen of Verona* (1971), his other major theatrical success, along with less commercially successful later shows including *Dude*, *Via Galactica*, and *The Human Comedy*. ## Beyond theatre MacDermot had a substantial career outside musical theatre too: he won a Grammy in 1961 for the instrumental "African Waltz," composed film soundtracks and classical concert works, and — notably for later generations of listeners — recorded a run of instrumental jazz-funk albums that have become heavily sampled source material in hip-hop production. In 1979 he formed the New Pulse Jazz Band to perform and record his own original material, continuing to work in this vein for decades. Died 17 December 2018 in Staten Island, New York, one day before his 90th birthday. ## Notable works - *Hair* (1967) — Broadway musical, his signature achievement - *Two Gentlemen of Verona* (1971) — his other major theatrical hit - "African Waltz" (1961) — Grammy-winning instrumental composition - Various instrumental jazz-funk LPs from the late 60s/70s, now widely sampled in hip-hop ## Notes to self - Worth listening to his instrumental funk/jazz records directly rather than only knowing him through *Hair* — that's apparently the more "musician's musician" side of his catalogue. - Would be interesting to track down specifically which hip-hop tracks sample his work — that's a whole rabbit hole in itself.