memorable street musicians
troubleman
1,928 Posts
How many of you have had their faces 
when passing by a street performer?My top 4 list:1. Dude outside the hollywood bowl at the tunnel that passes under highland. He was like 70 years old switching between a tenor and baritone sax while playing pharoah sanders like passages while his vintage drum machine was lying down some crazy ass rhythms. I remember wanting to stay but my lady wanted to go home. I still wish I could have recorded him. It was sublime2. This 8 piece chicago street band that was playing like the Pharoahs right across from the Chicago Art School. There was a drummer, tuba player, 3 sax, 2 trumpet, and bassist. They had 4 guys slanging their cd as they played. I actually stayed for 2 sets because I couldn't believe how good it was3. This one guy in pasadena playing the craziest blues I ever heard. Had the perfect sandpaper voice and talking about anything that came to his mind. What made it memorable though, is his keyboard playing consisted of mashing his hands on the 80's casio keys producing the most insane sounds I've ever heard. Think Howlin' Wolf meeting a drunk art ensemble of chicago.4. Dude who plays guitar on rollerblades with a turban in Venice, California. I love hearing a distored version of purple haze for the couple seconds as he passes by. He's been an icon for that beach for almost a decade I think.What about you guys....I'll give you some googled pics of other street musicians to inspire you. Anyone ever hear Wesley Willis live? 
when passing by a street performer?My top 4 list:1. Dude outside the hollywood bowl at the tunnel that passes under highland. He was like 70 years old switching between a tenor and baritone sax while playing pharoah sanders like passages while his vintage drum machine was lying down some crazy ass rhythms. I remember wanting to stay but my lady wanted to go home. I still wish I could have recorded him. It was sublime2. This 8 piece chicago street band that was playing like the Pharoahs right across from the Chicago Art School. There was a drummer, tuba player, 3 sax, 2 trumpet, and bassist. They had 4 guys slanging their cd as they played. I actually stayed for 2 sets because I couldn't believe how good it was3. This one guy in pasadena playing the craziest blues I ever heard. Had the perfect sandpaper voice and talking about anything that came to his mind. What made it memorable though, is his keyboard playing consisted of mashing his hands on the 80's casio keys producing the most insane sounds I've ever heard. Think Howlin' Wolf meeting a drunk art ensemble of chicago.4. Dude who plays guitar on rollerblades with a turban in Venice, California. I love hearing a distored version of purple haze for the couple seconds as he passes by. He's been an icon for that beach for almost a decade I think.What about you guys....I'll give you some googled pics of other street musicians to inspire you. Anyone ever hear Wesley Willis live?
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Mr. Opera Singer @ Peel metro circa 1997. Dude wore a dishevled tux & shouted the lyrics to frank sinatra songs. He had style.
4= Harry Perry.
Here's a few:
San Francisco:
Moses the vibes player @ 6th/Market.
North Beach Chinese guy playing Theme From the Godfather on the Chinese one-string violin thing.
The guy who used to do the full on Jimi Hendrix act down on Market St. - about 5 yrs ago.
...sings a song about scrotum the "hairy, scary voodoo bag".
The guy on the 6th/7th Ave L train walkway who used to have one side of his hair shaved, other not, and sang the most diabolical Beatles and Herman's Hermits songs. Well, he was gone for 3 years but now he's back. Be warned and plaese to punch him for me.
The kid at Times Sq with the Sheetrock-compound-bucket drumkit
The Andean panpipe group I think I've seen in every European city I've been to. They are the same band!
One of my favorite musicians on the metro was a blind couple. The man had a keyboard strapped to the front of him so he could play it vertically. He also had an amp strapped to his back. He held his walking cane in front of himself as he walked across the car and played "Strawberry Fields Forever." The female half of the team walked behind the pianist holding on to the amp so that she new where she was going while shaking a can of pesos to the time of the music. Their march across the train was amazingly skillful considering the fact that the train was packed and teetering all over the place.
If I ever return to Mexico City I'm definitely bringing some sort of digital recorder to record my trips in the Metro. The stories behind those people would be amazing too.
'The King' (Gerry Van King) on 6th St. in Austin has been a staple for many years
2. In Amsterdam one night with wifey, walking near the red-light district and heard this INSANE middle eastern jazz -- drums, a couple strings, but ripping above it all was a clarinet... really scorching. Walked around a few streets, trying to find the source, and when we did come find it, it was coming from an abandoned lot between two buildings on a canal street, the sound echoing around. We sat down with our legs over the wall of the canal and listened for about 20 minutes.
New York's street musicians kinda suck.
Juliette and Bruce, the Chicago Brother and Sister Blues Band. Juliette's been dead for a few years now, and Bruce is in jail in SF on the murder charge.
I don't know if SF or Chicago people remember seeing these two, but they were nuts. I used to watch them play downtown on State Street in Chicago and sometimes up by the Border on Michigan/Chicago until the cops would chase them off. Bruce played slide guitar and harmonica, and kept rhythm with a snare and bass on foot pedals. Juliette would play bass and sing like nobody's business, man! She had a hoarse shouting blues voice you could hear two blocks away, and I always kind of thought of her as a bass-playing female version of Buddy Guy: she would usually wear overalls and her facial expressions were great. She was awesome - loved to perform, and they would always pull a crowd.
Fast-forward a few years later to 2000 and my wife and I decide to switch up for a change of scenery from Chicago and move to SF; we'd been there a couple months now, and I was walking back to our first tiny-ass apt at the foot of Nob Hill from a web gig off of 5th/Clara one night, feeling kinda bummed bc the initial rush of moving to a new place had started to calm down enough to realize we were seven states away from the nearest friend or relative, kinda felt like we were on the edge of the world, lonely....I'm crossing Market and out of nowhere I hear this voice from waaaay down the street that sounds just like Juliette. I was like, "you've got to be kidding me?!? who's this?" and start walking down towards the crowd in front of a deserted bank building on Market....and it's Bruce and Juliette, playing to a crowd of like 70 people, and they're all completely into it. I couldn't believe it, was a freaky postcard from Chicago or something just when I needed it.
So I hang out until they take a break and I go up and talk to them ("what are you doing out here?!?!") and all that and tip them, tell them to keep it up and that is great to see a familiar face. Over the next year or so my wife and I would see them playing on Market every once in a while, and we'd always stop and check them out. They were great.
Fast forward a couple more years to 2002 and we're waiting for the Fulton 5 bus in front of the Gap at Market/5th and we notice a xeroxed flyer taped to the side of the bus stop that says "A Vigil for Juliette!" with a big picture of her underneath. I was like, "wha?..." and checked it out: Juliette had been found dead on Treasure Island, her body washed up out of the Bay, and Bruce was behind bars with charges pending. I looked around the next day and saw flyers everywhere on Market, so I took one and we went to this memorial service for her over at this school on Potrero/16th to pay our respects, which was strange - couldn't help but feeling every other person there was an undercover or something. I still have the flyer in my file cabinet.
The saddest thing about this whole story - outside of the obvious needlessness of Juliette's death - is that at the time you couldn't find a single piece of coverage in the news about her death. Not one. I finally found a clipping in one of the alternative presses, but nothing ever surfaced in SFGate or anything about it....until last summer when someone finally decided to take their turn at being Dashiell Hammett with the story.
Anyway, here's to you, Juliette. Your voice was amazing.
Yes - they were great. Didn't know the bad news...shame.
He now plays alongside one of my old friend's little brother.
i even cried a little, it was so moving.
YES!!!
Dude was on Melrose not too long ago. I was like, what are you doing here.
On the same day.
-I went to Indianapolis once with my girlfriend and we were at the Circle Center mall downtown...there's a tiny little square of grass outside it with a fountain I think...there was some band set up there playing, and they would let anyone that strolled by sing with them. So I went out there and chilled in the grass while my girl shopped. Some homeless dude rolled up and did this incredible improvised vocal performance, I can barely remember what it was like anymore but it was total
Harry Perry...
Someone called the store trying to promote this dudes new album. Apperantly he is touring right now. The best is when Chevy Chase was disguised as him in Fletch.
Thats thee Hypnotic Ensamble. Phil Coran's kids.
the hypnotic ensemble.
all members are sons of philip cohran.
their cd isn't all that great -- seeing them in the streets is the way to go.
I figured their cd was going to be sketchy. They need to get recorded the right way, because they were the shit!!! i had no idea they were Phil Cohran's kids. That's so next level... Phil Cohran's on the beach is
thanks to everyone who are sharing thier experiences. Keep it up
My dream job would be to travel the world and record the dopest street musicians in a field recording kind of way to keep the rawness. Like a modern day Alan Lomax or Harry Smith.
if you're from toronto, do you get annoyed as much as me when you see that drummer team, the guy that plays the plastic bins and always flips the drum stick at the corner of dundas and yonge by eaton's centre? nah, i can't hate, i loved those guys as a kid, and its great to see them still doing their thing, they're part of the scenery, like that santa guy that does pushups.
Wow, that was all pretty incredible. Alot to take in, and even the overly dramatic news article was fascinating. Musicians can be heartbreaking, and it does all seem like a greek tragedy. Thanks for the read.
- spidey
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2171818338098011336
Man that guy was crazy. I wonder what he would be like on a real set of drums.