Chris McGregor

&
The Brotherhood of Breath
 Chris McGregor has one all-consuming love-jazz.
And to play the jazz he wants to, with the
musicians he desires, Chris often has to cross the
colour line and play Coloured.

“Race doesn't matter to me, but for the sake of

the promoters , I sometimes have to play Coloured,”
Chris affirmed. “If I thought it would help my
music and the country's jazz, I would not hesitate
to be reclassified as a Coloured.”
 Biography
Born : 24 December 1936 in Somerset West

Grew up in Blythswood in the Transkei:

● Few white people

● This exposed him to the Xhosa culture and

music

During WW2 :
● Father joined the Navy

● Chris moved to Cape Town to live with his

mother
Life in Cape town:
● Took his first piano lesson

● Got exposed to the music from the army

marching around

1946: Returned to Transkei

● Continued music education in Umtata

● Exposed to mbaqanga and kwela music

● Joined groups with coloured people and also

established groups (discussed later)

Exposures in Cape Town and Transkei greatly

influenced his future music. Chris' interest in
music varied from classical to jazz and it was
during his second year in college that he chose
jazz, as he stated:
“Improvisation was natural to me”
1956 : won a scholarship to study music
(focussing on composition) at UCT
● Studied under Arnold Van Wyk, to name one

●
Listened to Abdullah Ibrahim at
Ambassadors School of dancing in
Woodstock
● Came into contact with Bela Bartok, Arnold

Schoenberg, Duke Ellington and Thelonious

Monk, and the live music of local jazz
musicians Cecil Barnard and others
● Began to play in university jazz groups

1961 : McGregor stopped attending the College of

Music, because he felt disconnected with his
musical roots
● Played at the Vortex Club in Long Street

● Worked with Stanley Glasser

1962 : Played in various places in Johannesburg
and taught at Durkay House

Chris and his groups (especially The Blue Notes)

were very successful despite Apartheid laws that
prevented mixed race groups
“They, in a way, belonged to the township
folk who were oppressed.” - Maxine
McGregor about her husband, Chris and
his band
 Exile to Europe
1964 : Left South Africa with The Blue Notes due
to Apartheid
● Performed in Zurich, France

● Settled in London

● Group broke up and Brotherhood of Breath

was formed
● Also involved in theatre

After BOB broke up, Chris left England for France

to pursue a solo career. This was actually due to
the public opinion describing their music as
“third world music” and “difficult to listen to”
It was only in the end of the 1960's that the public
warmed up to the music
South Africa was still at the heart of Chris' music.
The yearning back to SA (especially Transkei)
was evident in his music.

He was married to Maxine McGregor, who wrote

his biography in 1995.

Death : 24 July 1990, France

 Ensemble
Chris McGregor was in musical groups since he
attended high school in Umtata
● He was a part of small dance and a vocal
group, he also took part in the UCT jazz
group in the mid 1950s

1962 : McGregor stared his first ensemble; a septet

which he took to play at The Castle Lager Jazz
Festival in Soweto(Jabavu).
1963 : He started the Blue Notes which was one of
the first racially mixed music groups.
● The group gained success even though Apartheid
law made it illegal for people of different races
to interact with each other.
● The band never had the same members for long
as new members would replace the old ones.

Chris McGregor also had another band known as

“The Castle Lager Big Band”
1964 : The Blue Note performed at the France
(Antibes Juan le Pin) Jazz Festival and performed
in Zurich.
The group settled London and no long after that
separated.

1969 : McGregor started another group called

“The Brotherhood of Breath”
● The band consisted of Louis Moholo, Harry
Miller, Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwana,
(occasionally) Johnny Dyani; and many of
the free jazz musicians who were based in
London at the same time:
● After “The Brotherhood of Breath” he moved
to France and released three solo albums;
“Sea Breezes”, “In His Good Time” and
“Chris McGregor: Live at Toulouse”.
Chris McGregor was also involved in a movie
called “Kongi’s Harvest. He was a part of a theatre
band.

Chris McGregor has worked with: Dudu

Pukwana(South African alto saxophone), Nick
Drake(British singer), Harret Becket(British
trumpet), Marilyn Mazur(African American
pianist and Drummer) and Tungi Oyelana, to
name a few.
 MRA
Background & Circumstances
McGregor had a few tunes by Pukwana and
himself that could be easily taught to a large
ensemble by ear. One of these first tunes was
Pukwana’s “MRA,”
The title is often misinterpreted as initials instead
of an exclamation of the lesser-known synonym of
the more familiar “bra,” South African shorthand
for “brother.”
Beyond structural features, MRA gives one side of
Chris' experience in SA, namely comradeship
among musicians and other anti-establishment
forces
 MRA
Analysis
Rhythm
Simple quadruple time
March-like rhythm

Form
Cyclical form (AABA)

Harmony
Tonic to dominant progression
Instrumentation
Bass
Drumkit
Piano
Saxophone
Trumpet
Trombone

Melody
Bass intro, followed by the rest of the insruments
entering individually. Full orchestra from bar 16

Brass carries the melody. The melody is in the

form of Call and Response, with the trumpet
playing the main melody
 Legacy
The Rhodes University Jazz Heritage Project in
Grahamstown has preserved the legacies of The
Blue Notes and the Brotherhood.
● According to Maxine, the project has archived
all the cuttings, posters, brochures, music
scores and other memoires that she kept over
the years.
● The material is now available online for study
purposes.
“I was happy that all this material went back to
South Africa for use there, where it originally
came from.”
Moholo, the last surviving member of The Blue
Notes and the Brotherhood, believed in the power
their music had in breaking political and social
barriers.
“This music saw to it that the Berlin Wall fell.
We liberated our country partly through this
music. Everybody gave a hand – Coltrane, Cecil
Taylor, Keith Tippett, Elton Dean, John
Stevens, Johnny Dyani, Mongs. Music is the
healing force of the universe. The political
disease that was there needed music to heal it
up.”

The drummer went on to become a founding

member of The Dedication Orchestra, a jazz
ensemble created in the early 1990s that paid
tribute to The Blue Notes and The Brotherhood.
 Bibliography
https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/people-culture/a
https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chris-mcgregor
Youtube
Chris McGregor and The Brotherhood of Breath –
a biography written by Maxine McGregor
Reflection