Alex van Heerden | |
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| Born | Alex Scott Van Heerden (1974-11-23)23 November 1974 Port Elizabeth, South Africa |
| Died | 7 January 2009(2009-01-07) (aged 34) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Genres | Jazz,electronic, South African music |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Accordion, trumpet, voice |
| Labels | Smallfunk, New Cape |
Alex van Heerden (23 November 1974 – 7 January 2009) was a jazz musician fromCape Town, South Africa.
He was a self-taught musician who started to play trumpet at age 17, to avoid compulsory military training, during theapartheid era of South Africa. Later, on he began exploring music throughout various ways; jazz, the Karoo desert, vastrap, ghoema and electronic music played important roles.[1]
He worked withRobbie Jansen in Jansen's jazz groupSons of Table Mountain. Van Heerden also worked together with Swedish musician and producerHåkan Lidbo, creating electronic music on the side of the jazz and the vastrap he's been making. In a whole, he was a truly creative musician, always finding his own interpretations of both old and new music genres, developing music in a true way.
He worked, together with his brother-in-law, composer and guitarist Derek Gripper, to recreate the rural music of theWestern Cape within an acoustic setting. Together they created a style of music dubbed avant-goema, using string quartet, guitar, trumpet, vocals and accordion to open up new musical spaces within the musical landscapes of vastrap, langarm, boeremusiek, goema, and contemporary minimalism, jazz and improvisation. Their two CD releases,Sagtevlei andAle!x document this unique musical journey, as well as the score for the work for string quartet, guitar, accordion and trumpetSpore by die Bek van 'n Ystervarkgat.
Van Heerden died, age 34, in a car accident in Cape Town.[2]
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