Sammy Baksh doing his thing, Two talented musicians; one dream
January 11, 2009
CHRONICLE staffers came into a rare treat on Old Years Day when longtime ‘compadres’, the one and only Sammy Baksh and his guitar-toting buddy, Steve Persaud, better known to all his friends as ‘Jenno’, dropped by and livened up things a bit at the company’s annual end-of-year party.
Such was the quality of their performance that they had all hands on deck on their feet, from early afternoon until well into the night. Even the company’s taciturn Sunday editor couldn’t resist the temptation to shake a leg and other parts of her well-endowed anatomy, while others had the gall to try to emulate them, as evidenced by the photographs accompanying this story.
But besides indulging in their passion, which is to entertain and make people happy, both guys, who’re home after spending quite some time abroad, had some very important issues to touch on which they wanted share with us.
While what Sammy had to say was somewhat involved and had to do with copyright, ‘Jenno’ was a bit more straightforward and needed no interpretation.
“I will be here for some time, and I am in the process of coordinating a workshop where I can give some directive to youths who are interested in guitar music,” he said. That workshop is scheduled for later in the month.
Sammy, on the other hand, started off by saying: “The main reason I’m here is that I’ve seen that there is no respect for music in this country. Artistes say that people are selling their music in Guyana and they are not being paid for it.”
Clearly incensed by what he’s seen taking place here, Sammy said: “I walked into a record bar, and there was my music being sold and receipts being issued.”
From left, Jenno and fellow guitarist as they perform with Sammy Baksh
Noting that this was something that was unheard of in the developed world, particularly in the USA where he’s lived and worked for more than twelve years, Sammy said:
“All we’re saying is that our music is being infringed upon; that it is time that we give more respect to music… and to have respect, you must have discipline in every sector.”
Besides citing the need for a music union to represent artistes in Guyana, and a musical centre so that artistes and upcoming musicians can have somewhere to go to express their talent, Baksh noted that music did not come by magic, as it’s hard work and very expensive to make a song.
“People often ask me ‘why you are not rich and more famous,’ but they don’t know what we are going through,” he said. And his response invariably is: “You need to walk a mile in the musician’s shoes.”
Simmering down a bit, he talked with us awhile about his rich cultural roots. Hailed from the village of Enmore on the East Coast Demerara, Baksh seemingly comes from a family that is steeped in music. While his grandmother was a musician of note who specialised in the dholak, a traditional Indian musical instrument, his grandfather’s forte was making violins. He himself was a fisherman for well over ten years.
Then, after singing with Harry Panday and David Singh in the ‘Merrymakers’, a local group whose specialty was Indian music, he left the band and moved to the city, which is how he came to write his signature composition, ‘To be Lonely’ his first song written circa 1972. “I felt really lonely at the time as I had just come to town,” he recalled.
It happened one afternoon, he said, as he was sitting around, feeling particularly sorry for himself. “This feeling just came over me and I said aloud to myself: ‘To be lonely.’” The song would go on to become an international hit. He credits Richard Ousman of Wonderland Tours and the owner of Doc’s Record Bar with producing TO BE LONELY in 1978, in addition to LOOK OUT FOR JUDY, OPEN YOUR EYES and WE ARE JUST MEN AND WOMEN. Back then, he recalled, there were no cassettes or compact discs; just plain old wax records.
Over the years, he said, he has had the privilege of working with some of the best bands in the land, such as The Mischievous Guys or ‘M-Guys’ as they were sometimes called; The Combo 7 with Des Glasford and the gang; and The Yoruba Singers, which is still going strong after all these years. “I do my own music; I do my own melodies,” he said. He’s also represented Guyana at a number of international events, such as the Guyana Folk Festival held every year in New York by the Guyana Cultural Association.
One of the organisation’s 13 recipients of the 2008 Wordsworth McAndrew Award for the development, preservation, and promotion or propagation of Guyanese culture in the Diaspora, Baksh lamented the fact that the recently held Accolade Awards overlooked many important names that made real contribution in the field of music here. Among those that readily came to mind were the GT Boom Band, whose members included Tony Czar, Desmond Clunes and Keith Paul, who, along with other former member Bruce Bomfield are all now dead.
He also touched a bit on the quality of music on the market here, in terms of the lewdness that is being allowed to creep into the lyrics these days. “Vulgarity is killing this nation; vulgarity is bringing this nation down in the gutter. As an artiste, your music must not come forward in a vulgar way,” Baksh said.
Still doing his own writing, Baksh said: “… there is so much more that I have to do. I love my country; there is no country where I feel better.”
Jenno, meanwhile, also hails from Enmore, and is known in several quarters as a talented guitarist and sound engineer, specializing in audio and midi-commercial, as well as other aspects of music production, and is proud of having had his musical foundation in Guyana, a country of vast cultural diversity.
“I started to play music at a very young age, with some very talented musicians… including Burchmore Simon, who was my music teacher and a popular musician at the time,” he said.
After leaving school, he started to play bass with THE VIDYARTHI ORCHESTRA out of Enmore, and a few ‘rock’ bands around town before joining THE RAINBOW BAND, whose lead vocalist was none other than fellow villager, Sammy Baksh. Other members of the group included Bobby Diamond, Satro, Ravi, and Zar.
“We toured and performed all across Guyana, but after leaving THE RAINBOW BAND, I was taken up with a bigger challenge that saw me taking on an active and certainly busy role with THE ORIGINALS,” ‘Jenno’ said.
Working with THE ORIGINALS for a few years, Jenno performed all across Guyana and also went on several tours with the band to such places as neighbouring Brazil and Suriname before moving on to Toronto, when he founded THE FUZION FRONTLINE BAND which featured a number of Caribbean musicians.
“We played lots of Soca and Reggae music in mostly Caribbean night clubs, but we also played at other venues for some popular artistes from the Caribbean and North America,” he reminisced fondly.
He also recalled, with some amount of pride, Fuzion’s Guyana tour in 1994, the memory of which he said is one of his favourites. Others include his short stint with the Toronto chutney soca band, Nirvaan, which he joined after the breakup of Fuzion.
“After Fuzion broke up,” he recalled, “I did my own thing for a little while, and after playing with Nirvaan, I got an offer to play with THE TORONTO JAZZ MESSENGERS, where I played with some very popular jazz musicians from Toronto at some popular venues in and around Toronto.”
Another crowning moment for him, he recalled, was participating in THE MONTREAL JAZZ FEST, which is one of the world’s biggest jazz festivals, and in THE EUROPEAN JAZZ FESTIVAL in Belgium.
Many memories and much experiences later, after several pivotal ‘gigs’, as he called them, Jenno says that he has now ‘settled down’ to teaching guitar part-time, in between rehearsing with his new band, THE HOTSHOTS and being a freelance and session guitarist, a recording engineer, and freelance web designer.
“When I teach others and they know about the guitar, they appreciate it more, rather than have me telling them that this music is a magnificent way to express oneself,” he said.
He plans releasing an album of instrumental pieces shortly. “I have already composed five pieces, and I am hoping for completion sometime this year,” he said.
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