Having discovered Galt MacDermot for the first time tonight, I have to ask myself why I’ve never heard his music before! It’s been sampled in songs that I’ve heard, influencing hip hop and funk artists substantially, but until this evening I didn’t know who he was!
Canadian-American composer, pianist and theatre musical writer Galt MacDermot has been creating music since the early 60’s, writing music for film soundtracks as well as producing numerous jazz, funk and classical albums! His music has been sampled on hip-hop and funk songs and one of his best known tracks was Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In, which featured in his musical Hair and reached the top of the charts in 1969!
Coffee Cold appears on his 1966 album, Shapes of Rhythm and has been sampled by Handsome Boy Modelling School feat Roisin Murphy and J-Live on their 1999 track, The Truth. (check this out below).
Listening to Galt MacDermot’s music it’s easy to see why he has so heavily influenced artists of today, the beats for one thing are very enjoyable and Coffee Cold has got such a funky sound that defies dates…check it out above and here it sampled below.
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It captures the feeeling of morning cold plus coffee so well. When I firstheard this in 2002 I was hooked. How do you classify this music. As Jazz or Funk. Was it contemporary background music in that day?
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Thanks for your comment! This is indeed a great track! It does capture a certain jazzy feeling. As for how you would classify Galt MacDermot’s work, I think he covers such a spectrum of sounds, his music could range from soul to funk, jazz to funk. I know his music has been sampled on many occasions.
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