Andrew Tracey

Andrew Tracey (1936-). South African ethnomusicologist, promoter of African music, composer, folk singer, band leader, and actor.

Biography

Born 5 May 1936, Durban, South Africa. His father, Hugh Tracey (1903-1977), pioneered the study of traditional African music in the 1920s - 1970s, created the International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown in 1954, and started the company African Musical Instruments (AMI) which manufactured the first commercial kalimbas in the 1950s. Andrew Tracey continued and complemented the work of his father Hugh Tracey in a variety of ways.

Often performs, gives demonstrations and is consulted about and collaborates on musical and theatrical performances. For example, he and his brother Paul Tracey were musical performers in Leon Gluckman’s revue, Wait a Minim!, which they co-wrote, at the Intimate Theatre in 1962 and which toured the country for eleven months and around the world for seven years.

With his father and brother Paul, Andrew wrote the first instructional materials for the Hugh Tracey kalimbas which were being sent around the world in the 1960s. Upon his father's death in 1977, Andrew took over his father's role as director of ILAM, which he filled until his retirement in 2005, and his wife Heather Tracey took over the role of director of AMI until 1999.

Sources

Tucker, 1997.

Inskip, Donald P., 1972.

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