David Scott MacRae is a keyboard

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

ist from New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, noted for his contributions in jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and the Canterbury scene

Canterbury Scene

The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...

.

MacRae studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...

 and then worked in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in the 1960s as an arranger for Festival Records. He moved to the United States in 1969, playing with experimental

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 groups in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 before joining Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...

's ensemble in 1970. He relocated to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1971, working that year with jazz musicians Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

, Chet Baker

Chet Baker

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...

, John Hendricks

John Hendricks

John Hendricks is the founder and chairman of Discovery Communications, a broadcasting and film production company which owns the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet cable tv networks, among other ventures.-Early life:...

, and Gil Evans

Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...

.

In 1971 he was briefly with a group called Caparius before he joined Ian Carr

Ian Carr

Ian Carr was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator.-Early years:Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the elder brother of Mike Carr...

's group Nucleus

Nucleus (band)

Nucleus were a pioneering jazz-rock band from Britain who continued in different forms from 1969 to 1989. In their first year they won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock, and performed both at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Village Gate jazz club.They were...

, where he remained until 1973. Concurrently he played in Matching Mole

Matching Mole

Matching Mole was a short-lived UK progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene best known for the song "O Caroline". Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album The End of an Ear...

 and Elton Dean

Elton Dean

Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboard....

's band Just Us. He played in WMWM and Giles Farnaby's Dream Band

Giles Farnaby's Dream Band

Giles Farnaby's Dream Band was a collaboration between the early music ensemble St. George’s Canzona, Derby-based folk group The Druids, and Trevor Crozier’s 'Broken Consort'...

 in 1973 and did session work for Back Door in 1974, but left Nucleus around this time to concentrate on his own project called Pacific Eardrum, which he led with his wife Joy Yates until 1979. He continued working with Canterbury musicians such as Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

, Mike Gibbs, and Richard Sinclair

Richard Sinclair

Richard S. Sinclair is a progressive rock bassist, guitarist and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.-Biography:...

 through the 1970s.

In the 1980s MacRae worked briefly with False Alarm

False Alarm

"False Alarm" is a song by the Los Angeles-based punk rock band The Bronx, released as the second single from their 2003 debut album The Bronx...

 and then played in a reconstituted version of Soft Machine

Soft Machine

Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...

 in 1984. He returned to Australia later that year, and played in the Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 area with Bernie McGann

Bernie McGann

Bernie McGann is an Australian jazz alto saxophone player. He began his career in the late 1950s and is still active as a performer, composer and recording artist.- Biography :...

 and Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...

.

External links

• Goodies Podcast interview with Dave MacRae Recorded 9th February 2010.