The Galt MacDermot Interview

My dad was an ambassador to Victoria, South Africa. When I was 15 years old we were at the bottom of Africa, there were a few mines there. Enough that they had mine workers and the mine workers always danced when they were off. The miners were from all over Africa so there were all different types of music.

I started to go out to these mines to watch the people dance and to hear the music. I had never heard music quite like that before. I was a jazz fan in Montreal. My dad worked there for four years and I took in as much as I could.

Drumming was not the main thing, there was a drummer. The main thing was the singing. They were singing songs in their own language and I couldn't understand what they were saying all the time/ever. But it was damn good, I would sit there all morning and learned a lot about music from them.