A deep dive into the Genuines’ Kaapse klopse album ‘Mr. Mac and The Genuines’
Featuring Warrick Sony, Lloyd Ross, Mac McKenzie, and Hilton Schilder.
An exposé of the Genuines’ album featuring kaapse klopse banjo legend Sammy McKenzie. This is the story behind their actual ghoema album, which their album titled ‘Goema’, wasn’t.
If that sounds confusing, this podcast should hopefully help clear things up.
The Genuines formed in April 1986 and moved between Cape Town and Johannesburg enjoying widespread support and varied audiences.
Prior to the formation of the Genuines, the band members were exposed to a variety of musical styles from cabaret, dinner music, and traditional Cape Goema (or Kaapse Klopse) to jazz, rock, funk, and punk.
Three of the members of The Genuines hailed from Cape Town and grew up in the Goema music environment. Many people feared that Kaapse Klopse may have died at the end of District Six, but the strong influences that the band grew up with, bubbled to the surface.
Samuel ‘Mr Mac’ McKenzie (born 1924) was one of the few surviving exponents of Goema music. He played the banjo for more than fifty years in a variety of bands that play Goema rhythms: big dance bands, klopse troupes, marching bands, and jazz bands.
The magic of Mr. Mac’s banjo was a part of the Cape scene that is rapidly becoming history. On this album, Mr. Mac joins his son, Mac, and the rest of The Genuines in traditional light classics and original compositions, to recreate the atmosphere of the annual open-air assemblies of Goema bands in preparation for the Coon Carnivals.
Mr. Mac and The Genuines (SHIB 27)
Released February 2, 1987
Samuel “Mr Mac” McKenzie: Banjo
The Genuines:
Gerald “Mac” McKenzie: Bass, Vocals
Hilton Schilder: Keyboards, Percussion, vocals
Gerard O’Brien: Guitar
Ian Herman: Drums
Recorded at Shifty Studio July to October 1986
Produced and engineered by Lloyd Ross
Cover by Sarah Hills
Photos by Peter McKenzie and Lloyd Ross
