The Goema Captains of Cape Town recently launched their debut album, Healing Destination, at Manenbergs Jazz Café.
Penthouse goema is breathing new life into District Six's klopse tradition. Penthouse playboy, Mac McKenzie, is at the centre of this lounge goema style which has added a chill factor to classic banjo tchangalang.
To promote the vision captured on the Goema Captains debut, Healing Destination, Mac travels to Germany, Holland and Switzerland this month. He describes the penthouse experience as "the sophistication of the music of the carnival. That's what happened in South America with the bossa nova. It's all about smooth."
Once the bassist for 1980s band, The Genuines, Mac has traded the four-string for a guitar. "I didn't want to play bass. I was always a guitar player, but I had no time to learn because we were fighting the boere. I hung onto the bass, and in 1994 I said, right, job done."
Respected banjo player, Mr Mac senior, was one of most notable influences on this ex-Genuine. "My dad left a legacy.
He was captain of his team. They used to practice bands and choirs here at home and he went everywhere with his music, even on the bus."
Has banjo technique evolved over time? "Banjo is still prominent in the Cape Flats. I've spotted at least three young banjo players who play another dialect of the banjo. But, I think the age of the serious banjo player is gone. Before we were born, there were people like George Formby who took it seriously.
My dad belonged to a serious class, not just the scratch-along type. He could play jazz standards, Tchaikovsky, movie themes."
Besides the flavour added by the accordion of Gramadoelas' Alex van Heerden and Hilton Schilder's khoi mouthbow, the Goema Captains have incorporated turntable. Mac has nothing but praise for one of the city's finest DJs, Ready D.
"I walked into the studio one day and there was Ready D doing his scratch thing in the air. Saxophonist Ezra Ngcukana loves Ready D. He thinks he's the best drummer he's come across!"
Mac's recording history has included a solo guitar compilation titled Cybergriot, and Chasing da Voodoo with Genuines in the 1990s. At the moment, he is working scoring out salsa and chamber quartet music. Clearly he can't be coaxed back into playing bass. "Ek will nie meer speel nie!" he insists.
Would he ever return to those manic rock roots of the 1980s?
"The rock was deliberate, because at the time there were only whites playing rock except for The Rockets at Plum Crazy. I said to Hilton we can corner the market and then we can bring the goema across to them. Because, here we were playing Chick Corea and George Benson, it was suffocating, horrible.
"So I bought a drum machine and we ran around playing. We met drummer Ian Herman and that was a very nice relationship. To do the rock 'n' roll is not a problem, but it has got to come to me via a commission."
The legacy of Mr Mac lives on in Mac McKenzie.