Famed Guyanese-born pianist De Souza dead at 77

Apr 10, 2012 News

Trinidad (Trinidad Guardian) – Guyana-born international musician Dennis De Souza has died.
De Souza, who was known among his Caribbean counterparts as a famed Caribbean pianist, died on Saturday in Canada, after battling with Parkinson’s disease. He was 77.
In a Guyanese article on Saturday, it stated that De Souza, of Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, died at 8.18 am in his sleep at the Credit Valley Hospital, Toronto, where he had been a patient for the past two weeks.

Guyana-born international musician Dennis De Souza

The report also stated that the veteran musician, who last performed publicly 18 months ago, was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and in recent weeks, pneumonia. His two sons and a sister were at his side at the time of death. De Souza’s wife died two years ago.
The article recounted the early days of De Souza and how he fell in love with T&T. De Souza, who had an innate ability for music, started playing at the tender of age of nine years and completed a three-year music course in seven months. De Souza loved to play music by Pat Boone, Jim Reeves, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Dick Hayes.
But at the age of 20, while De Souza was on his way to England via T&T to study music composition, he fell in love with T&T and the ship sailed without him. But, it wasn’t the music that first captured De Souza; it was another love —cricket. While De Souza stayed in T&T, he played cricket with Harvard and Queen’s Park CC.
After one of their big victories, De Souza and his cricket pals—Willie Rodriquez, Ben Kanhai, Sonny Ramadhin, the Davis Brothers and Joey Carew went to the Penthouse, Port-of-Spain to celebrate. He was asked by the resident bandleader, Choy Aming to play piano with the band. Up to 2003, De Souza held a three-year contract at the Hilton hotel, Port-of-Spain.