Ex-Broadway star drums up inspiration at Williamson school

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

You don’t need an instrument to make music.

“Music is all around us,” said Elec Simon, a percussionist and motivational speaker.

Simon performs with the Q Sticks in Cleveland, performed in the Broadway show “Stomp” and toured with the off-Broadway version. He led Williamson Elementary fourth- through sixth-graders Friday in a performance for Black History Month.

He just returned from performing in Toronto at the NBA All-Star Game.

Friday’s celebration also included a performance by the Williamson Gospel Choir under the direction of Angela McCoy. The singers entertained fellow students, teachers and parents with “God Made Me,” “Break Every Chain” and “We Shall Overcome.”

Rather than drums, the students who worked with Simon tapped their sticks on electric-blue 5-gallon buckets from Lowe’s.

Simon, a Steubenville native, travels to schools, prisons and juvenile detention centers, spreading his inspirational message.

“I taught them the rhythm ‘Never Give Up,’” he said. “That’s my motto in life.”

He has it tattooed across his chest, too.

Simon hopes to one day have all of the people he’s taught the “Never Give Up” rhythm to perform together on the same stage.

“Music is my life, and it brings people together,” he said.

Simon was scheduled to begin rehearsing with the students Tuesday, but the bad weather canceled school. He had to cram all of his instruction and the students’ rehearsal into three days.

Anyone can make music anywhere with anything, he said. The sound made by dropping a loaf of bread or the rumple of a roll of paper towels is music.

Simon, accompanied by Greg Rice on percussion and Vincent Gatlin on drum kit, led the students through Friday’s performance.

He taps his drumsticks together, echoed by the young musicians.

The students got to keep the drumsticks.

“This is something special for you,” Simon told the students. “Understand that.”

Sixth-grader Princess Noisette, 11, plans to practice.

“I can practice on anything,” she said. “If he can do it, I can do it, too.”

Fifth-grader Rishun Jones, 11, put his whole body into his performance. He also plans to keep working on his drumming.

“I’m going to play until they break,” he said.