William Moniz, better known as Dennis, was remembered yesterday as a passionate and prolific performer who lived for music.

Andrew Chamberlain, a veteran musician, said he was introduced to Mr Moniz’s music as a teenager.

Mr Moniz’s band Life Sentence played at Mr Chamberlain’s Mount Saint Agnes school dance.

Mr Chamberlain said: “Here was this revolutionary funk band, mostly all black guys, not playing rock and roll but blasting out this amazing funk sound very loudly in an all-white school chaperoned by all these nuns.

“They left an impression, believe me.”

Mr Chamberlain was speaking after Mr Moniz, who was 66, died last week, days after his bicycle was in collision with a motorbike on Middle Road, Devonshire.

Mr Chamberlain said he later recorded some tracks with Life Sentence and also performed with Mr Moniz in a band called Better Half. He added the two had played together since 1978.

Mr Chamberlain said his good friend was a “typical artist”.

He added: “To say we always got along would be a lie.

“You couldn’t argue with him, but he was one of the most influential people in my music career.”

Mr Chamberlain said Mr Moniz was fearless and an old-school Bermudian performer.

He explained: “He could engage with the visitors and really get them on his side. Those who saw him perform as a percussionist would be treated to something truly special.

“He literally could make his congas talk, and he had more rhythm in his pinky than I had in all ten of my fingers.

“Like many of the great artists, we shall speak of him as one of a kind.”

Dale Butler, author of Music on the Rock, said that he greatly admired Mr Moniz and that his passing was a “great loss to Bermuda”.

He added: “I just regret never having the opportunity to interview him.”

Mr Butler’s book detailed many of Bermuda’s most prominent musicians.

He said Mr Moniz played a key role in getting local band The Unit into the 2009 Havana International Jazz Festival.

Mr Butler added: “Dennis was key in winning the audition, although unfortunately he was unable to go.”

Kandyelyn Pimentel said her older brother had been a performer since he was a child.

Ms Pimentel said: “The stage was his world.”

She added when they were children he would perform James Brown songs at the former Clayhouse Inn on North Shore.

Ms Pimentel added: “The crowd would just go crazy.”

She said that music was all her brother ever wanted to do and was “his calling, his passion, his life”.

Danilee Trott, Mr Moniz’s niece, added he was an outgoing man who was “always on stage, even when he was home”.

She said: “He was playing music, or he was practicing music, or he was dancing with my grandmother, or singing to her or writing a song.

“There wasn’t much else, it was all just entertainment. He lived to perform.”

She added her uncle was a “true Bermuda ambassador”.

Ms Trott said: “He loved tourists and he loved visitors.”

She added that Mr Moniz was the musician that others could count on when acts needed support.

She explained: “He didn’t have his own transportation, but he was so valuable to everybody that they would literally come to the house and pick him up.

“He could just pick up anything — he just knew it.”

Ms Trott said that her uncle was also passionate about animals and fishing, and was a devoted and loving son.

She added: “He was just a genuine person. He had his challenges, but he had a good heart.”

Mr Moniz was father to one son, also named Dennis.