Robbie Jansen

Robert Edward Jansen (1949 – 7 July 2010) was a South African musician and a folk hero in the Western Cape. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa.

Jansen began his musical journey in pop bands such as The Rockets, performing music made popular by the South African radio stations such as Springbok Radio. The first instruments he played were the concertina and the mouth organ. The repertoire of the first bands he played with consisted of British pop of the hippie era. But after a trip to London, which was part of a prize in a band competition, he soon discovered black music from the USA and in particular the groups with brass sections and he decided he wanted to be a brass instrument player. Brass instrument bands were not new to Robbie as his father was associated with the Salvation Army bands, but he chose the rock and jazz genre for himself. He played in the brass section of Cape Town's cult jazz/rock group the Pacific Express from where he went solo as an alto-sax player and singer.