Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Only this morning I learned of the death of Canadian-born composer Galt MacDermot. While he will remain best-remembered for the 1967 hippie/Vietnam War-era stage musical HAIR (richer and much more affecting than Milos Forman's 1979 screen adaptation), MacDermot deserves note within this forum for also scoring a handful of films that included COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (1970). The directing debut of actor Ossie Davis effectively kicked off what would be referred to as the "blaxploitation" genre (preceding Gordon Parks's SHAFT by about nine months). MacDermot's blend of infectious songs, underscore, and source music spanned elements of funk, rhythm & blues, rock, soul, and gospel, definitely enhancing the movie's pleasures and appeal.

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM's 1970 soundtrack album happily offered some of the score's peaks; my own favorite is the picture's early and standout comic action cue, "Coffin Ed and Grave Digger"). Eventually the LP was reissued on CD among the "Soul Cinema" series from MGM and Beyond Music. Anyone who ever enjoyed any of the wonderful songs from HAIR has a good chance to appreciate the charm of MacDermot's HARLEM score ... even if it's now too late to discover it during this artist's lifetime.

Rest in peace, Mr. MacDermot. I'm grateful to have taken delight in your work for most of my own life.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cu ... ad-770302/

My university performed "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and I was waiting forever for a CD issue of it. At the dawn of the Internet, I looked up "Galt McDermot" and a phone number came up so I called it. It actually was his home and his son answered. I don't know who was more surprised, me for reaching his house, or he, because a fan actually called him.

He was lovely and spent quite a bit of time on the phone with me. At the end of the call, he told me what record executive to reach out to with a letter asking that TGoV be put on CD.