This month is the first anniversary of trumpet player Alex van Heerden’s sudden passing last January. When he died he was recording music with a band of farm workers, the Delta Optel Vastrap Band (that’s them above). As I noted at the time, I was a big fan of Van Heerden’s style of playing–the way he mixed a range of South African genres and sounds like boeremusiek, goema, vastrap, and the riel, among others–and saw him perform live a number of times. (I also referenced Van Heerden in my New Year’s Day post.)
Derek Gripper, who recorded and played with Van Heerden, just sent me a link to a site where you can buy some of Van Heerden’s music. Gripper also noted that he hopes to get the last “… Gramadoelas [Van Heerden's jazz band] released, as well as the rest of the huge catalog of jazz, electronic, new acoustic etc that he left us before passing onto other things.”
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