Mac McKenzie

Artist 1951–2024 Cape Town connection

Bassist and composer, born Gerald McKenzie in Bridgetown, Cape Town, in 1951, the son of a banjo player and carnival leader known as Mr Mac. He led the Genuines, the band that took the carnival's goema rhythm into rock and jazz and then called the result goema. He died in 2024.

Connections

was born in

Cape Town (1951) born in Bridgetown

worked with

Hilton Schilder the Genuines and later the Goema Captains of Cape Town

belongs to the genre

Goema the band named their music after the drum

was a member of

The Genuines he led the band

Did you know?

The Genuines called their jazzy kind of rock ghoema, and the dictionary now records that as a sense of the word.

Martin writes that the Genuines, led by Mac McKenzie with Hilton Schilder and often Robbie Jansen, named their music ghoema and recorded Mr Mac and the Genuines for Shifty Records in 1987. The Dictionary of South African English lists that 1980s style as a second sense of the word.

Music 1987 Cape Town