This is the forty-fourth article in our series on famous Guyanese artistes written and edited by Dr Vibert C Cambridge. Dr Cambridge can be contacted by e-mail at cambridg@ohio.edu
George McNeil Simmons founded The Rhythmaires in the 1950s. He is a talented, multi-dimensional musician who plays the piano, organ, viola, and mandolin.
He is an expert on the engineering of pianos and currently is a pianist and music teacher in Mississauga, Ontario. Simmons is adamant that technique has been the crucial in his success in music.
Simmons was born in Wismar, Demerara River, in March 1933 to Reginald David and Louise (nee Hart) Simmons. His father was a cabinetmaker and his mother was a homemaker. Both parents played the piano and encouraged their children to explore the world of music. Like many Guyanese parents of that era, they sought the best for their children, so when George, the last of three boys, was very young, they relocated to Fifth Street, Georgetown, British Guiana.
According to Simmons, music permeated Guyanese society.
"When I was growing up, that place was rich with music," said Simmons.
His musical journey in Guyana illustrates this fact. At five, he started piano lesson with Miss Rook, who lived opposite his family's Fifth Street home. Here he was grounded in theory and technique. Among the music texts he used during these foundation years were Hemys' Pianoforte Tutor and Karl Czerny's Practical Exercises for Beginners.
Simmons remembers Miss Rook as a generous woman who took good care of him. She not only provided him with a musical foundation, she also provided him with a model for teaching music. She stressed technique.
After his foundation years with Miss Rook, Simmons' next music teacher was Mr Francis Percival Loncke. He considers Loncke one of the greatest musicians that he has every known. "He was born 100 years ahead of his time," concluded Simmons.
In addition to formal music education, Loncke, who was also the assistant organist and choir master at the Roman Catholic Brickdam Cathedral, trained Simmons on the church organ. By the age of 13, Simmons was performing on the cathedral's organ.
Recalling the euphoria associated with playing the organ, he said, "Walking on the pedals... it was like walking to heaven."
For Simmons, this was another example of the importance of technique. The more proficient he became, the more heavenly was his musical experience.
Simmons's association with Francis Percival Loncke also provided him with other musical opportunities. Loncke, who was also the conductor of the Princessville Symphony Orchestra, trained him to play the viola, and Simmons became the viola player with the orchestra.
"Percival Loncke opened the musical gates for me, and I walked straight in," said Simmons.
Loncke was in addition his headmaster at Queenstown Roman Catholic Primary School.
Simmons was also a student of Mrs Daniels. In 1955, he won the best piano student award for the Grade 7 music examinations. His prize was a copy of Bach's Preludes and Fugues Book 2. That award remains one of his prized possessions.
Simmons on piano and Aubrey De Freitas on violin were regular performers on The British Council's Half Hour - a popular live classical music programme broadcast on ZFY.
Simmons describes himself as being musically inquisitive. As a young man, his musical tastes included all genres of music - classical, sacred, folk, masquerade, and popular. He even taught himself to play the mandolin.
He speaks about his special enjoyment of masquerade-band music and the flouncers. He remembers the blending of the flute and the drums as they accompanied stilt dancers, mad bulls, and memorable flouncers such as 'Joe Flounce.' Masquerade bands took him back to "his African roots."
He also remembers being about ten years old when steel band music arrived in British Guiana and its impact on urban society. He recalls that during Christmas seasons, he would forget the chores his mother sent him on as he followed steel bands around Georgetown.
Simmons attended St Stanislaus College, and one of his close buddies there was Bing Serrao. Bing went on to create The Ramblers more than 50 years ago.
The creation of the Ramblers signalled a shift in bands in Guyana. The string band was creating a new sound and catering to new tastes. By the late 1950s, Simmons and a number of his friends, many of them 'grow matties' and fellow members of the choir at Brickdam Cathedral, created The Rhythmaires. The name was chosen because of Simmons's belief that "without rhythm, nothing lives."
The founding members of the band included Patrick and Stanley Blakeney, Mike Woods, George Simmons, and 'Fats' Downey.
The band quickly developed a national following for its wide musical repertoire and its regular Tuesday evening performances on ZFY. Their radio performances were encouraged by Ayube Hamid and Rafiq Khan. Rafiq Khan and George Simmons were school mates at St Stanislaus College.
In addition to solid urban popularity, The Rhythmaires were also popular with the sugar estate elites. "In those days, the sugar estates were like foreign countries," said Simmons.
Most of the gigs in Georgetown were for private parties. Among the public places at which they played were the Moonglow and the Bel Air Hotel.
In 1968, Simmons, a professional engineer with the Guyana Electricity Corporation migrated to Canada, where he joined Ontario Hydro.
After taking early retirement in 1989, he returned to music. He is currently actively engaged in building and reconstructing pianos and teaching piano. He is sought after as a piano teacher.
Today, Simmons has an active musical life. In his studio he continues to sharpen his technique and experiment with improvisation. He has also retained his connection with sacred music.
Simmons is from a distinguished musical family. His siblings are also associated with musical innovation in Guyana. His eldest brother, William John ('Willie J') Simmons, played the piano and is associated with the development of the Civil Service Association Folk Singers. According to Mildred Lowe, this group contributed to the popularization of Guyanese folk music during the early 1960s.
Joseph David ('JD') Simmons played the violin and was a nationally acclaimed bass with the Woodside Choir. All the Simmons boys acquired their voice training at the Brickdam Cathedral Choir under Mr Francis Percival Loncke.
The last child in the Simmons family is Mary, who lives in England and is an acclaimed pianist and singer.
Simmons's musical career is distinctive and makes all Guyanese proud. He is emphatic that technique was an important component in his success, and he still maintains a daily routine of scales, chords and arpeggios. For Simmons, a musician without technique is hollow, a mere parrot.
The Guyana Folk Festival Committee is proud to have awarded George McNeil Simmons a Wordsworth McAndrew Award in 2003.
Sources
Telephone interview George Simmons (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH), April 10, 2005