17 FEB. MAC MCKENZIE
with Alex van Heerden on trumpet and accordion
Genevieve Benny on vocals
and Ronan Skillen on Indian percussion

Who is Mac?
Mac McKenzie is the Goema Captain of Cape Town. His daddy was an actual Goema Captain in the 50s, leading a winning carnival troupe for the longest consecutive period ever, until he was stabbed in the liver and quit the carnival forever.

Mac is more a conceptual Goema Captain, he is the captain of a a city of music and not just a troupe. The best illustration of this will be the world premiere of his symphonic presentation of goema in Spring this year.

Mac and Abdullah Ibrahim's compositions are those that most vividly paint this city, because they paint behind the city, to its history and its future.

Mac has been known in various incarnations. Most recently as the leader of the Cape Town band the Goema Captains of Cape Town, on tour in Europe at the time of writing this report. They have an album out featuring many of the Cape Town greats, including saxophonist Robbie Jansen, and Zolani Mahola (best known for her work with Freshlyground). It is called Healing Destination.

Before the Goema Captains was the Genuines, a band of punk persuasion, banned in South Africa and stars in Europe. Mac was a bass player back then, and the band was Ian Herman on drums (best known for his time with Tananas), Hilton Schilder on piano (the one that 80s popsters wore like a guitar), and Gerard O`Brien on guitar.

Mac, now in his 50s, turned his bass guitar into a guitar, and turned his punk into penthouse goema. Like Jobim and his friends took samba into the lounge and called it Bossa Nova, with the Goema Captains, Mac took goema off the streets and into the penthouse.

What did we want to achieve?
On this evening at the Village Hotel, we wanted to pull off something we had been thinking about for a few years: bringing together goema, the traditional music of the Cape with its roots in slavery, and opera, marketed as an elite art, but really a form of cabaret.Genevieve bought in another angle: Indian percussion. So Ronan came in with tablas, water percussion and other tricks to create a sound quite unheard before.

The show was also the first phase of the symphonic goema that Mac is currently composing. It is called The Journey, and what happened this night at the hotel, culminates in Spring this year with the first orchestra performance.