Testimonials
Dr. Johnny Clegg
OBE OIS
In 1986 I launched my band, Johnny Clegg and Savuka.
Keith, a multi-instrumentalist who played keyboards, flute and saxophone, came highly recommended by his peers and I pursueded him to join my band.
Keith’s additional contribution to the band as arranger, added color and texture to the songs, imbuing the music with a unique flavor.
Two years later, the band went on to achieve the highest music honours in France, Switzerland and Belgium and won several awards:
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Biggest selling International Album France
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Biggest selling World Music Album France
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GRAMMY NOMINATION
Best World Music Album
(Heat, Dust and Dreams)
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Billboard Music Award
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Best World Music Album
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Kora Award
Best African Group
I highly respect Keith for his passion, consistency, service and dedication to music, both as a composer in his own right and as a member of the band that helped to place South Africa on the musical map in Europe.
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Dr. Johnny Clegg OBE
(Deceased)
BA (Hons) Social Anthropology
Honorary Doctor of Music and Law
Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Visual & Performing Arts
Johannesburg, South Africa
Dr. Jonathan Crossley
BMus (Hons), MMus (Cum Laude), Ph.D. MBA
Keith Hutchinson represents a unique compositional voice in the South African landscape.
His language is founded in the compositional processes of modality, as opposed to traditional western conceptions of vertical harmonic expression, which I find inspirational and in turn, these have impacted my pedagogy.
In this way, Keith’s legacy has indirectly been imparted to a large number of music students whom I have taught during my tenure as an academic.
It is in part Keith’s modal methodological framework through which I have taught composition and jazz theory and thus his legacy extends beyond his own practical and compositional outputs.
Musical achievement should not only factor in the recognisable physical outputs, such as albums, shows and capacities of music direction,
but also the rhizomatic expressions of influence across generations.
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Dr Jonathan Crossley
Formerly The Wits School of Arts,
University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg. South Africa.
At present:
Lecturer in Music Technology
Department of Music Technology
School of the Arts - University of Liverpool, UK.
E: Jonathan.crossley@liv..ac.uk
M: +44 7485 195014
Bruce Dennill
I have been working as a music writer and broadcaster since the mid-nineties and have discovered, in the course of reviewing thousands of albums and concerts and interviewing hundreds of musicians from around the world, that there are few people on the South African music scene who, with relatively little fanfare, have been as respected for their intense, bewilderingly wide-ranging talent, creative output and fierce principles as
Keith Hutchinson.
He is a prolific composer across many different genres of music and has contributed on every level, from teaching children to play basic piano scales;
to writing pop songs; writing scores for top
South African orchestras;
composing music for film and documentaries;
doing big band arrangements and writing original music for TV series and station ID’s;
from touring original, commercial rock music in the Sixties and Seventies to writing nearly five-hour experimental jazz pieces in the nineties.
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He hasn’t hogged the headlines, but has achieved an incredible amount and built up a vast catalogue of work, much of which will continue to extend his legacy, as it is incorporated into course-work in top teaching institutions.
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Bruce Dennill
Arts Journalist, Editor, Broadcaster & Musician
South Africa
M: +27 (0) 73 202 5300
Mike B. Ford
For the past 35 years Keith has been one of the unsung heroes in the South African Music Industry, as a performer and educator.
In his personal capacity, he is a composer, orchestral arranger and producer of note and has made a significant contribution to
Radio and Television in South Africa.
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Mike B. Ford
Radio Consultant, Educator, Composer,
SAMA Judge
(South African Music Awards)
M: +27 (0) 61 017 5093
Ann Williams
Keith Hutchinson is a talent to be recognised for the soundscape of our country and worldwide. The array of musical depths, shifts and expansions offered by his seemingly unending creativity, are astonishing. And he always gives more.
Ardent and receptive.
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Ann Williams
TV, Stage and Events Producer
South Africa.
M: +27 (0) 82 452 4060
Cary Bialac
Review of Keith’s Tribute :
'Salute Monsieur John McLaughlin'
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‘WOW .. What a salute of pure gratitude and unadulterated soulmanship...
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Keith is an Artist, Craftsman, Musician, Tone Poet and Mood Painter extraordinaire!!!
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Beautiful pocket and exceptional musicianship.
Everyone involved is world-class.
(Everyone = Only Keith)
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Cary Bialac
Fan
Austin - Texas