Education
MacRae studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and then worked in Australia in the 1960s as an arranger for Festival Records.
MacRae studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and then worked in Australia in the 1960s as an arranger for Festival Records.
He moved to the United States in 1969, playing with experimental groups in Los Angeles before joining Buddy Rich"s ensemble in 1970. He relocated to London in 1971, working that year with jazz musicians Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Jon Hendricks, and Gil Evans. In 1971 he was briefly with a group called Caparius before he joined Matching Mole, where he remained until 1972.
In March 1973 he recorded with Ian Carr"s group Nucleus (Labyrinth album).
Concurrently he played in and Elton Dean"s band Just United States He continued working with Canterbury musicians such as Robert Wyatt, Mike Gibbs, and Richard Sinclair through the 1970s.
In the 1980s MacRae worked briefly with False Alarm and then played in a reconstituted version of Soft Machine in 1984. He returned to Australia later that year, and played in the Sydney area with Bernie McGann and Ronnie Scott.
He is the father of singer Jade MacRae.