Hennie Bekker
Encyclopedia
Hennie Bekker is a Juno
nominated Zambian
born composer
, arranger
, producer
and keyboardist
based in Toronto
, Canada
. His career has run the spectrum from jazz fusion
and film scoring
to New Age
and techno
. A Juno Award winner for his work with techno-driven trio BKS
, Bekker also helped pioneer melding soft melodies with the nature-driven environmental recordings of Dan Gibson
, founder of Solitudes
.
Bekker composed, arranged (in the case of the public domain classical works), and performed the music on the first 14 albums in the Dan Gibson's Solitudes - Exploring Nature With Music
series, including the 1989 best-selling, quadruple-platinum Harmony. Named “one of the most prolific and successful figures in contemporary Canadian pop music” by Billboard and well into his sixth decade of musical recording, Bekker has issued over 60 albums – the most recent on his own Toronto, Ontario-based Abbeywood Records – and is still prolific, recording and issuing an average of one to two projects a year.
n Copper Belt
mining town of Nkana
Kitwe
, Bekker was raised 48 km down the road in Mufulira
, also home to another future rock notable, songwriting producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Bekker first became enamored with piano when, at the age of 6, he heard his aunt Ria play the instrument. After his parents bought him a small piano, Bekker taught himself to play, at first leaning towards pianists like Carmen Cavallaro
, Eddy Duchin
and later the sounds of the jazz greats like Art Tatum
, George Shearing
, Oscar Peterson
and Bill Evans
for inspiration.
In 1945, the family relocated to Bulawayo
, Southern Rhodesia
(later christened Zimbabwe
). He attended Milton Junior School and then the Bulawayo Technical High School.
). During this period, he also served as a resident pianist for the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation’s morning show featuring Rhodesian radio icon Leslie Sullivan. In late 1961, after a three-month stint in Elizabethville (now called Lubumbashi
) in the Congo (the gig was cut short due to the Katanga war), Bekker decided to move to Johannesburg
, South Africa
, where he became a session musician. He returned to Salisbury in 1962 with his band to play at the Bretts supper club there until the end of 1963. Bekker then moved to Luanda
, Angola
with the his band (Doug Graham bass, Eddie Van Diermen drums and Derek Graham vocals) for a short stint at the Club Naval. With the band's return to South Africa in 1964, it was booked into a successful 18-month residency at the Riviera Hotel in Durban.
, the eventual record label home of such international superstars as Ladysmith Black Mambazo
, Mahlathini
and the Mahotella Queens
, Miriam Makeba
, Hugh Masekela
, Juluka
, Lucky Dube
and Letta Mbulu
. During this period Bekker's skill as an arranger would become evident, and in the years following, and well into the 80s, he arranged, and in some cases produced or co-produced countless works for well-known South African artists. Also during this period (and into the early 70s) he released a number of solo albums (LP
s) on labels such as His Master's Voice, EMI and Gallo.
. A residency at the renowned jazz club "The Branch Office" was one of Bekker’s regular gigs, having such talents in his band as guitarist Johnny Fourie
(a Billy Cobham
sideman recommended to Chick Corea
by John McLaughlin
as a potential Return to Forever
guitarist) drummer Tony Moore and bassist/arranger/composer/producer – and future Juluka
collaborator – Johnny Boshoff
. Simultaneously, he became a master jingle
writer, and over the next 12 years, would compose over 500 of them to air on South African Broadcasting Corporation
, recording the same jingle in the nine different african languages besides English and Afrikaans in order to meet the SABC policy of servicing the nine different african nations within their broadcast area.
and, with future Pat Travers
producer Emil Zoghby, co-produced and played keyboards on the 1978 album Prisoners On The Line by the U.K. based folk rock group Magna Carta
, and arranged and conducted pianist/bandleader Stanley Black’s
1979 LP
Digital Magic. He returned to Johannesburg
in 1980 to score a handful of motion pictures, most notably Tigers Don’t Cry
, starring two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn
. In the seven years that followed, Bekker continued working as a jingle writer, and composed, recorded and performed music for local and international Television shows. He also worked on a number of albums for South African artists. While Bekker, by this time, had established himself as a sought after arranger, accustomed to writing scores by hand, he had always used the latest in audio recording and processing equipment, and was used to working in large studios, but it was during this period that would bring with it the greatest change in the way Bekker composed and recorded music. Bekker was to truly establish himself as an electronic musician, becoming the first Synclavier
owner in South Africa. Many of Bekker’s early New Age albums were composed on Synclavier, and he continued to use it until the mid-90s. Other album projects done in the early 80s included New Age style score for an early IMAX type show at Sun City called "Solar Vibrations", the soundtrack to which was released as an LP.
to add music to his father Dan’s Solitudes environmental recordings. Their first collaboration, Harmony, sold over 400,000 copies, and Bekker provided the music for 13 more gold, platinum and multi-platinum Solitudes titles before striking out on his own with 'the first album in his Kaleidoscopes
series, Spring Rain
with Holborne Distributing and later, Tranquility, through Quality Records
.
His Quality years also led him into the BKS
techno-dance trio partnership with DJ Chris Sheppard
and Greg Kavanagh, churning out three albums – For Those About To Rave, We Salute You (featuring the Juno-nominated dance chart-topper “I’m In Love With You”), Dreamcatcher and Astroplane, which contained the Juno-winning 1997 Best Dance Recording track “Astroplane (City Of Love mix)”. The trio toured across Canada, filling dance clubs from Halifax to Vancouver, and spurred more gold and platinum certifications of several dance mix
compilations.
During the BKS days, Bekker continued to work with Dan and Gordon Gibson - putting out a further five albums in the Solitudes series. Having established himself as a top Environmental / New Age composer, he also had the opportunity to continue to compose, arrange and produce further soothing, meditative, nature-inspired albums that were distributed by Holborne Distributing Co. Bekker incorporated his unique interpretations of familiar classics, carols and lullabies on various albums including Lullabies. Albums in the “Classical Tapestries” series, Relaxing Pachelbel, Bekker's own rendition of "Vivaldi's Four Seasons" and "The Classics" built on the success of the Classical based "Solitudes - Exploring Nature with Music" albums, including the million-plus selling The Classics. Many of the albums distributed by Holborne were sub-licensed to Northword Press (NatureQuest/Northsound) and released under different names, including several of the Tranquility albums. Between 1993 and 1996 Bekker added four more albums to his Kaleidoscopes series (Summer Breeze, Autumn Magic, Winter Reflections and Christmas Spirit). The multi-platinum-selling African Tapestries series, a fusion of New Age and World music interwoven with the diverse sounds of the African wilderness, was created in 1995, with the release of the first album, Temba. Following the shutdown of Quality Music in the late 90s, Bekker reissued the Tranquility albums, incorporating them into a new series, the Hennie Bekker’s Tranquility series. He also composed a further three albums for the series, namely Essence of Romance, Romantic Classics and A Time for Romance.
In 2003, following the shutdown of Holborne Distributing, Bekker began reissuing the albums previously distributed through Holborne (including reworked versions) on Abbeywood Records. In 2009 Bekker released the latest album in the African Tapestries series, Amani, and incorporated the African inspired album “Jabula”, previously licensed to Somerset Entertainment, into the series. In the same year, a limited edition five CD box set, the African Tapestries collection, including all five albums was released. Also in 2009, Bekker released what could be considered his most contemporary album since he began working with Dan Gibson in 1989. The album, called Moving On saw Bekker combine his relaxation and world sensibilities with his foundation in jazz to produce an album that truly represented his depth as an artist. Bekker brought in top Canadian musicians, including longtime collaborators Greg Kavanagh, EVI and trumpet man Bruce Cassidy and saxophonist and EWI John Johnson, to perform on the album. While maintaining his integrity as a New Age artist, on this album, Bekker moved on from the primarily electronic albums of his past, using acoustic drums, electronic wind instruments and guitars. A compilation entitled Spectrum - An Anthology of Relaxing Instrumental Music, featuring fourteen tracks from eleven different albums was released in August 2011.
Bekker has 23 Canadian album certifications, including gold, platinum, double and triple-platinum.
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
nominated Zambian
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
born composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. His career has run the spectrum from jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
and film scoring
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
to New Age
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
and techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
. A Juno Award winner for his work with techno-driven trio BKS
BKS
BKS is a Toronto-based techno group created by radio DJ Chris Sheppard, with other members Hennie Bekker and Greg Kavanagh....
, Bekker also helped pioneer melding soft melodies with the nature-driven environmental recordings of Dan Gibson
Dan Gibson
Dan Gibson was a Canadian photographer, cinematographer and sound recordist.During the late 1940s, Dan Gibson took photographs and made nature films, including Audubon Wildlife Theatre. Dan produced many films and television series through which he learned how to record wildlife sound...
, founder of Solitudes
Solitudes
Solitudes is a brand of music created by the late Dan Gibson who was a Canadian photographer, cinematographer and sound recordist.During the late 1940s, he took photographs and made nature films, including Audubon Wildlife Theatre. He produced many films and television series. It was through this...
.
Bekker composed, arranged (in the case of the public domain classical works), and performed the music on the first 14 albums in the Dan Gibson's Solitudes - Exploring Nature With Music
Solitudes
Solitudes is a brand of music created by the late Dan Gibson who was a Canadian photographer, cinematographer and sound recordist.During the late 1940s, he took photographs and made nature films, including Audubon Wildlife Theatre. He produced many films and television series. It was through this...
series, including the 1989 best-selling, quadruple-platinum Harmony. Named “one of the most prolific and successful figures in contemporary Canadian pop music” by Billboard and well into his sixth decade of musical recording, Bekker has issued over 60 albums – the most recent on his own Toronto, Ontario-based Abbeywood Records – and is still prolific, recording and issuing an average of one to two projects a year.
Early years
Born in the ZambiaZambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
n Copper Belt
Copper Belt
The Copper Belt or Copperbelt is the copper mining area of Central Africa which runs in Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo . This area gave name to the Copperbelt Province, around the towns of Ndola, Kitwe, Chingola, Luanshya and Mufulira...
mining town of Nkana
Nkana
Nkana is a section of the city of Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, Zambia which started off in the early part of the 20th century as a railway station to support the growing complex of copper mining operations. It was named after Chief Nkana, the local traditional ruler...
Kitwe
Kitwe
Kitwe is the second largest city in terms of size and population in Zambia. With a population of 547,700 Kitwe is one of the most developed commercial and industrial areas in the nation, alongside Ndola and Lusaka...
, Bekker was raised 48 km down the road in Mufulira
Mufulira
Mufulira is a town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. It grew up in the 1930s around the site of the Mufulira Copper Mine on its north-western edge...
, also home to another future rock notable, songwriting producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Bekker first became enamored with piano when, at the age of 6, he heard his aunt Ria play the instrument. After his parents bought him a small piano, Bekker taught himself to play, at first leaning towards pianists like Carmen Cavallaro
Carmen Cavallaro
Carmen Cavallaro was an American pianist. He established himself as one of the most accomplished and admired light music pianists of his generation.-Music career:...
, Eddy Duchin
Eddy Duchin
Eddy Duchin was an American popular pianist and bandleader of the 1930s and 1940s, famous for his engaging onstage personality, his elegant piano style, and his fight against leukemia.-Early career:...
and later the sounds of the jazz greats like Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
, George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
and Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
for inspiration.
In 1945, the family relocated to Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
, Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
(later christened Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
). He attended Milton Junior School and then the Bulawayo Technical High School.
1950s to mid-1960s
At age 15, Bekker and five of his friends formed a band called “The Youth Marvels” playing the hits of the day. At age 22, he worked with band leader Gerry DeVos for a few years until he formed his first band, the Hennie Bekker Trio with bassist Noel Kidwell and Drummer Eddie Van Diermen. Bekker then moved to Salisbury, Rhodesia (now HarareHarare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
). During this period, he also served as a resident pianist for the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation’s morning show featuring Rhodesian radio icon Leslie Sullivan. In late 1961, after a three-month stint in Elizabethville (now called Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi is the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, second only to the nation's capital Kinshasa, and the hub of the southeastern part of the country. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the relatively prosperous Katanga Province, lying near the Zambian border...
) in the Congo (the gig was cut short due to the Katanga war), Bekker decided to move to Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where he became a session musician. He returned to Salisbury in 1962 with his band to play at the Bretts supper club there until the end of 1963. Bekker then moved to Luanda
Luanda
Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
with the his band (Doug Graham bass, Eddie Van Diermen drums and Derek Graham vocals) for a short stint at the Club Naval. With the band's return to South Africa in 1964, it was booked into a successful 18-month residency at the Riviera Hotel in Durban.
Mid-1960s to late-1960s: The hotel circuit, Gallo
In January 1966, after the Durban gig, the band did a one-year stint at the Mikado night club in Johannesburg. Bekker went on to front a number of bands bearing his name, and played the South African hotel circuit, notably 'Bretts' at the Criterion Hotel in Johannesburg. He followed that up by becoming a staff record producer and music director as well as working with record producer Billy Forrest at venerable Gallo AfricaGallo Record Company
Gallo Record Company is the largest record label in Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is owned by Avusa Limited . The current Gallo Record Company is a hybrid of two rival South African record labels between the '40s and '80s: the original Gallo Africa and G.R.C...
, the eventual record label home of such international superstars as Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choral group from South Africa that sings in the vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube. They rose to worldwide prominence as a result of singing with Paul Simon on his album, Graceland and have won multiple awards, including three Grammy Awards...
, Mahlathini
Mahlathini
Simon 'Mahlathini' Nkabinde was a South African mbaqanga singer. Known as the "Lion of Soweto" Nkabinde is the acknowledged exponent of the deep-voiced, basso profundo "groaning" style that came to symbolize mbaqanga music in the 1960s...
and the Mahotella Queens
Mahotella Queens
The Mahotella Queens are a South African singing group formed in 1964 comprising Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu and Mildred Mangxola...
, Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
, Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
, Juluka
Juluka
Juluka was a South African music band formed in 1969 by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Juluka means "sweat", and was the name of a bull owned by Mchunu.-Career:...
, Lucky Dube
Lucky Dube
Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae musician. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25-year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist...
and Letta Mbulu
Letta Mbulu
Letta Mbulu is a South African jazz singer born and raised in Soweto. She has been active since the 1960s, but left for the United States in 1965 due to Apartheid. In the U.S. she worked with Cannonball Adderley, David Axelrod and Harry Belafonte...
. During this period Bekker's skill as an arranger would become evident, and in the years following, and well into the 80s, he arranged, and in some cases produced or co-produced countless works for well-known South African artists. Also during this period (and into the early 70s) he released a number of solo albums (LP
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
s) on labels such as His Master's Voice, EMI and Gallo.
Early to mid-1970s: London, Arrangements, Teal
In 1970 Bekker travelled to London, where he worked as musical director and played Piano in Galt McDermot’s West End show “Isabel’s a Jezebel” at the Duchess Theatre. He also did TV work, and on occasion, played keyboards with the band in “Hair” and the show "Promises, Promises”. During that time he also did arrangements for various producers, and played solo piano gigs in hotels. After five months in London, Bekker returned to Johannesburg to become musical director for Billy Forrest’s newly formed “Intercontinental Record Company” (IRC). In 1972, IRC was bought by Teal (then a Polygram company), and Bekker became musical director for the Teal Group. Bekker continued to be very active in Teal, producing and arranging singles and albums for well-known South African artists, many of which were engineered by Grammy winner John Linderman. Bekker then jumped into the electronic-based world of the jazz rock hybrid fusionJazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
. A residency at the renowned jazz club "The Branch Office" was one of Bekker’s regular gigs, having such talents in his band as guitarist Johnny Fourie
Johnny Fourie
Jan Carel Fourie was a South African Jazz guitarists.His first passion for music come whilst watching cowboy movies and Johnny wanted to imitate their sound.After this period he heard the George Shearing quintet in 1949...
(a Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
sideman recommended to Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
by John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
as a potential Return to Forever
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...
guitarist) drummer Tony Moore and bassist/arranger/composer/producer – and future Juluka
Juluka
Juluka was a South African music band formed in 1969 by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Juluka means "sweat", and was the name of a bull owned by Mchunu.-Career:...
collaborator – Johnny Boshoff
Juluka
Juluka was a South African music band formed in 1969 by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Juluka means "sweat", and was the name of a bull owned by Mchunu.-Career:...
. Simultaneously, he became a master jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
writer, and over the next 12 years, would compose over 500 of them to air on South African Broadcasting Corporation
South African Broadcasting Corporation
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is the state-owned broadcaster in South Africa and provides 18 radio stations as well as 3 television broadcasts to the general public.-Early years:Radio broadcasting began in South Africa in 1923...
, recording the same jingle in the nine different african languages besides English and Afrikaans in order to meet the SABC policy of servicing the nine different african nations within their broadcast area.
Late 1970s to Mid-1980s: London, Album production, Jingles
In 1979, tiring of the scene, Bekker traveled to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and, with future Pat Travers
Pat Travers
Patrick Henry "Pat" Travers is a Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career with Polydor Records in the mid-1970s...
producer Emil Zoghby, co-produced and played keyboards on the 1978 album Prisoners On The Line by the U.K. based folk rock group Magna Carta
Magna Carta (band)
Magna Carta is a folk rock group originally formed in London in April 1969; their first concert was on 10 May 1969, by Chris Simpson , Lyell Tranter , and Glen Stuart ....
, and arranged and conducted pianist/bandleader Stanley Black’s
Stanley Black
Stanley Black OBE was an English Bandleader, Composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label...
1979 LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
Digital Magic. He returned to Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
in 1980 to score a handful of motion pictures, most notably Tigers Don’t Cry
Cinema of South Africa
The cinema of South Africa refers to the films and film industry of the nation of South Africa.-List of South African films:* Sarie Marais * Die kaskenades van Dr...
, starring two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
. In the seven years that followed, Bekker continued working as a jingle writer, and composed, recorded and performed music for local and international Television shows. He also worked on a number of albums for South African artists. While Bekker, by this time, had established himself as a sought after arranger, accustomed to writing scores by hand, he had always used the latest in audio recording and processing equipment, and was used to working in large studios, but it was during this period that would bring with it the greatest change in the way Bekker composed and recorded music. Bekker was to truly establish himself as an electronic musician, becoming the first Synclavier
Synclavier
The Synclavier System was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation, manufactured by New England Digital Corporation, Norwich, VT. The original design and development of the Synclavier prototype occurred at Dartmouth College with the collaboration of...
owner in South Africa. Many of Bekker’s early New Age albums were composed on Synclavier, and he continued to use it until the mid-90s. Other album projects done in the early 80s included New Age style score for an early IMAX type show at Sun City called "Solar Vibrations", the soundtrack to which was released as an LP.
1987 to present: Relocation to Canada, Solitudes, BKS, Junos, African Tapestries
In 1987, Bekker and his wife Jacky immigrated to Canada, hooking up with John Parry Music and a steady gig providing cue music for production libraries. In 1989, he was recruited by Somerset Entertainment Producer Gordon GibsonGordon Gibson
Gordon Gibson, OBC is a political columnist, author, and former politician in British Columbia , Canada. He is the son of the late Gordon Gibson Sr, who was a prominent businessman and Liberal Party politician in mid-1950s BC....
to add music to his father Dan’s Solitudes environmental recordings. Their first collaboration, Harmony, sold over 400,000 copies, and Bekker provided the music for 13 more gold, platinum and multi-platinum Solitudes titles before striking out on his own with 'the first album in his Kaleidoscopes
Kaleidoscopes
Kaleidoscopes is a series of instrumental music albums by Zambian born Canadian composer Hennie Bekker. There are four albums in the series, namely "Spring Rain", "Summer Breeze", "Autumn Magic" and "Winter Reflections"...
series, Spring Rain
Spring Rain
"Spring Rain" is MAX's 23rd single on the Avex Trax label and their second ballad single. It was released on February 20, 2002 after the announcement of lead singer Mina's pregnancy and marriage...
with Holborne Distributing and later, Tranquility, through Quality Records
Quality Records
Quality Records is a Canadian entertainment company which released music albums in Canada on behalf of American record labels, and also released recordings by Canadian artists...
.
His Quality years also led him into the BKS
BKS
BKS is a Toronto-based techno group created by radio DJ Chris Sheppard, with other members Hennie Bekker and Greg Kavanagh....
techno-dance trio partnership with DJ Chris Sheppard
Chris Sheppard
Chris Sheppard is an Australian rugby league player. He has previously played for the North Queensland Cowboys and the St. George Illawarra Dragons...
and Greg Kavanagh, churning out three albums – For Those About To Rave, We Salute You (featuring the Juno-nominated dance chart-topper “I’m In Love With You”), Dreamcatcher and Astroplane, which contained the Juno-winning 1997 Best Dance Recording track “Astroplane (City Of Love mix)”. The trio toured across Canada, filling dance clubs from Halifax to Vancouver, and spurred more gold and platinum certifications of several dance mix
Dance mix
Dance mix is a form of music, created by mixing Techno House and Electronica. It reached its peak of popularity in the mid to late 1990s. However, it can also imply manipulating alternative rock and adult contemporary songs that are otherwise not dance songs so that "pop songs" can be more...
compilations.
During the BKS days, Bekker continued to work with Dan and Gordon Gibson - putting out a further five albums in the Solitudes series. Having established himself as a top Environmental / New Age composer, he also had the opportunity to continue to compose, arrange and produce further soothing, meditative, nature-inspired albums that were distributed by Holborne Distributing Co. Bekker incorporated his unique interpretations of familiar classics, carols and lullabies on various albums including Lullabies. Albums in the “Classical Tapestries” series, Relaxing Pachelbel, Bekker's own rendition of "Vivaldi's Four Seasons" and "The Classics" built on the success of the Classical based "Solitudes - Exploring Nature with Music" albums, including the million-plus selling The Classics. Many of the albums distributed by Holborne were sub-licensed to Northword Press (NatureQuest/Northsound) and released under different names, including several of the Tranquility albums. Between 1993 and 1996 Bekker added four more albums to his Kaleidoscopes series (Summer Breeze, Autumn Magic, Winter Reflections and Christmas Spirit). The multi-platinum-selling African Tapestries series, a fusion of New Age and World music interwoven with the diverse sounds of the African wilderness, was created in 1995, with the release of the first album, Temba. Following the shutdown of Quality Music in the late 90s, Bekker reissued the Tranquility albums, incorporating them into a new series, the Hennie Bekker’s Tranquility series. He also composed a further three albums for the series, namely Essence of Romance, Romantic Classics and A Time for Romance.
In 2003, following the shutdown of Holborne Distributing, Bekker began reissuing the albums previously distributed through Holborne (including reworked versions) on Abbeywood Records. In 2009 Bekker released the latest album in the African Tapestries series, Amani, and incorporated the African inspired album “Jabula”, previously licensed to Somerset Entertainment, into the series. In the same year, a limited edition five CD box set, the African Tapestries collection, including all five albums was released. Also in 2009, Bekker released what could be considered his most contemporary album since he began working with Dan Gibson in 1989. The album, called Moving On saw Bekker combine his relaxation and world sensibilities with his foundation in jazz to produce an album that truly represented his depth as an artist. Bekker brought in top Canadian musicians, including longtime collaborators Greg Kavanagh, EVI and trumpet man Bruce Cassidy and saxophonist and EWI John Johnson, to perform on the album. While maintaining his integrity as a New Age artist, on this album, Bekker moved on from the primarily electronic albums of his past, using acoustic drums, electronic wind instruments and guitars. A compilation entitled Spectrum - An Anthology of Relaxing Instrumental Music, featuring fourteen tracks from eleven different albums was released in August 2011.
Bekker has 23 Canadian album certifications, including gold, platinum, double and triple-platinum.
External links
- Official Website: henniebekker.com
- Record Label: abbeywoodrecords.com