For the past 76 years, he has made music his career, one that has taken him around the world. Since 1948, he has made the United Kingdom his home.
Rannie Hart was born in Hopetown, West Coast Berbice to Cecil and Emily (nee Bazilio) Hart on July 16, 1916. He was the youngest of eight siblings - four boys and four girls. The late Fred Wills was the son of his sister Florence.
Like his older brother, Victor, Hart began his musical career in the British Guiana Militia Band. Victor played the french horn and toured with the band in Wembley in 1924.
Rannie Hart joined the band as an apprentice when it was under the direction of Captain Fawcett. He was 12 years old. Because of his size (he wore size 3 boots), he was known as 'Lil Hart.' He spent 11 years in the band. When he left it was conducted by Major Henwood.
While in the band, Hart successfully completed a correspondence course from the Virtuoso Music School in Buffalo, New York, and was promoted from the second coronet stand to the solo coronet stand. For his virtuosity on the coronet and his dulcet tone, he became know as 'Hot Lips.' According to Val Wilmer, the British music historian, by the age of 18, Hart was "B.G.'s hottest trumpeter."
Hart's post-militia band career is filled with innovation and travel. Among the accomplishments he is most proud of during this period is the creation of the Syncopators Orchestra. When he left for Trinidad and Tobago to join the Trinidad and Tobago Police Band, Tom Charles took over the Syncopators Orchestra.
According to Hart, his membership of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Band was a particularly challenging period. The musical training and experience he had acquired in the BG Militia Band made him a highly competent soloist and petty jealousies ensued. He was taunted and was called 'Mud Head.' Today, he holds no bitter memories, as this period contributed to what he considers a satisfying musical career.
After his Trinidad and Tobago sojourn, Hart returned to British Guiana and was a featured soloist with many of Guyana's leading orchestras. He remembers joining Gun Fernandes and the Luckies and earning $12 per fortnight. His salary in the BG Militia Band had been $10 per month. During this World War II period, Guianese bands were very active, performing for the British and American troops who were stationed in British Guiana. In 1948, Hart joined the SS Katumba in Trinidad and Tobago, and travelled to England following the musical muse.
England
It did not take long for Hart to establish musical roots in the UK. According to Hart, prior to travelling to England, he had met Mr. Snell in Georgetown, British Guiana. Snell was a petty officer on a British merchant navy ship and had extended an invitation for Hart to look him up if he ever came to England.
Mike and Trevor Phillips, quoting an article from the South London Press (Friday, August 27, 1948) referred to the person who extended the invitation to Hart as Dennis Snow. By this time, Hart was leading a 14-piece band at the Queen's Hotel, Pulross Road, Brixton. That band had a mission: to popularise calypso music in London. In the process, Hart gave Lord Kitchener 'a break,' and the rest is history.
Hart remembers and still hums Kitchener's London is the place for me, which was developed with the band during this period. Hart also remembers Kitchener's extemporising on Your wife is my wife and my wife is my wife causing them to lose the gig at the Queen's Hotel as the hotel owner's wife felt that Kitchener was out of order. Hart and Kitchener would become good friends, and Hart was featured on many of Kitchener's recordings. Hart is particularly fond of his work on The two foot rat in the wardrobe.
Hart also recorded with Bill Rogers when Rogers recorded with Melodisc in England. His favorite recording with Bill Rogers is Bald-pated Emily.
Hart played solo trumpet in some of London's leading bands. His friend Frank Holder arranged for him to work at the Paramount on Tottenham Court Road. That gig introduced him to London's elite. From the Paramount, he played at Cirius Club (Princess Margaret was a regular), The Churchill Club, and at The Savoy where he was a member of the Roberto Ingles Band.
Hart was "in demand as an adaptable trumpet player and he worked with a great number of bands," said Val Wilmer. "He played with bands that were 'all coloured bands,' and he also worked with white bands. He played jazz, Latin American, and calypso. He worked at some of the top night clubs."
Hart's musical prowess would take him around the world. In the mid-1950s he spent a year in Pakistan as a member of the resident band at the Palace Hotel. The band was led by the American jazz musician Eric Jackson. Other members included Carl Francis, Clive Wares, and Bertie Gibbs.
On his return to England from Pakistan, Hart established closer working relations with other West Indian musicians who were experimenting with calypso music. One of them was Russ Henderson, who is recognized as the 'father' of steel band music in the United Kingdom. Hart and Henderson started the tradition of performing calypso music in Ladbrook Grove during the carnival season. That act has been recognized as the seed that has blossomed into the Notting Hill Carnival, now considered to be the largest carnival in Europe.
Hart also worked in film, performing in films such as The Captain's Paradise (1953, with Alec Guiness), Fire Down Below (1957, Rita Hayworth and Robert Mitchum), Christopher Columbus, and The Long Haul.
In addition to having an active musical career, Hart raised a successful family. He was married to the late Leonie Esme Hart (nee Shanks) and is the father of four children (Bridget, Myrna, Randy, and Michael). His daughter Bridget, a jazz expert, speaks of her father as a gentle man and one not given to bombast. She is very fond of his renditions of Stardust, which Hart considers to be his signature tune.
Bridget also recalls the inevitable hard times that accompany the life of a musician. She remembers her father and mother riding through those rough moments with courage. She recalls that her father never succumbed to the pressures of racial intolerance in England. He refused to enter the back doors at The Churchill Club and threatened not to perform if his daughter and her friends were not allowed to attend one of his performances at the prestigious Club Le Contempri in Swiss Cottage, London.
He has been a band leader and in the process worked with musicians from the Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana), Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. His band, 'The Caribbean Boys' featured The Mighty Terror. He has worked with Guyanese musical stalwarts in England such as Carl Francis, Eddie Grant, Snr, Frank Holder, Mike McKenzie, Walter 'Wally' Stewart and Iggy Quail.
For the past 76 years, Rannie Hart has made music around the world and can count many of the world's important musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Lord Kitchener, and Joe Williams, his friends.
Hart feels that his musical life has been successful. He looks back with pride to the work he did in Guyana, especially the creation of the Syncopators. He is also proud of the work that he did with Russ Henderson to help create the Notting Hill Carnival.
Hart still plays the trumpet. Those who heard him perform at his sister Irene's 100th birthday last year say he still commands respect as 'Mr Sweet Lips.'
Sources
Telephone interview (Vibert Cambridge/Bridget Hart-Doman), December 19, 2004
Telephone interview (Vibert Cambridge/Val Wilmer), December 20, 2004
Telephone interview (Vibert Cambridge/Rannie Hart), December 20, 2004.
Telephone interview (Vibert Cambridge/Frank Holder), December 21, 2004
Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips Windrush : The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Briain (London : HarperCollins, 1998, p. 79-80.