A Unique Composer, A Remarkable Man

Inspired by the sounds and rhythms of traditional Xhosa music, Chris McGregor helped put South African jazz on the world map. Graham Jooste recalls the composer’s creativity and his contribution to nation-building.

- Graham Jooste

I knew Chris McGregor from our two years together at the South African Nautical College General Botha, at Gordons Bay, during the 1952/1953 intake. Music was his life.

During inspection one Saturday morning, an officer caught McGregor playing a tune, ever so quietly, on the piano in the recreation room. McGregor jumped to attention and awaited his fate.

The officer asked him what he thought he was doing. McGregor said he was just dusting the keys! The officer was impressed and, with a knowing smile, instructed him to make sure that all the keys were dusted, not just those he had been using.

After his two years of naval training, he qualified to enrol in the South African College of Music in Cape Town, where he spent four years.

McGregor was born in Somerset West and spent his early boyhood days in the Transkei at Blythswood Mission, a Church of Scotland school where his father was headmaster.

Here, the youngster was exposed to the beautiful music and rhythm of the Xhosa people with its variations and sound echoing across the wild landscape of the Nqamakwe district. The purity and simplicity of the music formed the basis of his future compositions.

CAPE JAZZ

At college, McGregor was exposed to a different set of influences: Béla Bartók and Arnold Schoenberg during the day, and the recordings of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, and live music of local jazz musicians such as Dollar Brand (later Abdullah Ibrahim), Cecil Barnard, Vincent Kolbe and others at night.