Alex van Heerden, a South African Trumpeter and musician of note has died tragically in a car accident on the N1 between the Plattekloof and Jip de Jager off ramps at 8:50am on Wednesday 7th Jan. I have prepared a short tribute to this really outstanding musician with links and info I have found on the web.

I have gathered some video I found of him and added some pics I took of him on the one and only occasion I saw him play. This was at a jam session at Carnival Court in Long Street, Cape Town on the 30th May 2007. I was blown away by the incredible tone and beauty of his trumpet which to me was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.

Apart from the information on various websites I don't know too much about Alex other than the fact that he will be sorely missed. Below is a little information I have collected with some links to more info.

Alex Van Heerden is the most musical person I’ve ever met during my fifteen years as a producer. He is made of music and he can make anything sound beautiful. When we work together it’s very rarely that Alex makes a second take of anything. For me, being a computer musician with endless possibilities to change, improve and manipulate, it has been a musical trip where I’ve discovered the place in me where music comes from. And the title track of the album Simple suggests precisely that. Music, at its best, can reflect the eternal questions of our existence, or even a glimpse of the Devine.

The title track is also sung in three languages simultaneously ; English, Afrikaans and Swedish. In addition to that some of the track tittles are in Xhosa, the main native South African language. This is to suggest that if the differences between these languages can dissolve so beautifully in the music, so can the problems we all think we carry. If we live our life from the place where music comes from.It’s simple. But not easy.

There is some more info at www.smallfunk.com

Here are some musings on ‘Nefertiti/Insect jazz’,out now on Cirque Mavo

I have a love/hate relationship with jazz - A music tragically stylized in recent years. Fortunately I find myself very much on the periphery of the ‘human, all too human’ aspect of this music: I live in a small rural town in the brink of the South African Karoo desert, and my fellow jazz lovers here are the myriads of insects that appear in my horse-stable/studio throughout the day…
Unavoidably, I have to wonder what a jazz-standard would sound like to an insect. Would its time frame be different, the song lasting for hours? The sound of piano and brushes combined with the rustling of wings and the crackling of legs? The machine-like rigidity of insect bodies projecting ritualistic repetitive tasks onto the abstract fluidity of Lee Konitz or Miles Davis?

Read more of this blog at www.frontierrogue.com
Alex van Heerden-forever young
January 8th, 2009 by Ingrid

Every morning I read the paper-most things covered are at an emotional distance from me. Zim, (I try and imagine what hell it must be like to live there,) the cricket, (whether they win or lose makes no difference to me.) Steve’s comings and goings (I’m jealous of his book sales and marketing strategy) and so it is week in and out with an article here and there touching my heart strings or making me think a little deeper, (like the life of Helen Suzman.)
Read more on Ingrid Woolfaardt's blog


Listen to some music and read more info at www.myspace.com/alexvanheerden