Street singer and blues harmonica player "Grandpa" Elliott Small is a familiar sight to any New Orleanian who has strolled the Royal Street pedestrian mall. In his red T-shirt, blue overalls and bushy white beard, the blind musician has anchored the corner of Royal and Toulouse for more than a decade -- sometimes solo, sometimes with a friend on keyboard or guitar. In the Quarter, he's an institution.
And now, thanks to the documentary project "Playing for Change: Peace Through Music," he's taking it worldwide.
The project -- a 20-track CD, available now; and a documentary film, set to air nationally on PBS throughout August -- is the result of four years of field recording by Los Angeles recording engineer Mark Johnson. And, the resulting band Playing for Change continues to tour, making a stop on Saturday night (July 18) at Tipitina's.
Johnson got the idea for the project in 2005, when he happened upon singer Roger Ridley performing Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" for tips on the Santa Monica pier. He spent the next few years traveling the world, recording and filming more than 100 musicians. He recorded South African buskers. He took his digital equipment into the Himalayas. He taped an Irish children's choir that united Catholic and Protestant singers. He got tracks in India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Israel.
He even recorded Bono.
And of course, he waxed "Grandpa" Elliott Small on his corner in the French Quarter.
Once the field work was done, Johnson created each track, by editing together, seamlessly, dozens of recordings from separate artists taped throughout the world. The album's final version of "Stand by Me," the song that inspired the project, is an astonishing pastiche, featuring 37 artists who had not yet met one another. The result is that the "Playing for Change" record is more than just a compilation; it's cross-cultural sonic unification.
The performers did finally meet. On June 27, the Playing for Change band, featuring more than two dozen musicians whose tracks became "Stand by Me," headlined the Jazz/World stage at the United Kingdom's monstrous Glastonbury Festival. It is one of the world's largest outdoor music festivals. ("I thought the Jazz Fest was big," Small said.)
A YouTube video of the band performing "Stand by Me" got more than 20 million views earlier this year, making it the No. 1 rated clip in the site's history, and turning the project into something of a global phenomenon. The two-disc CD/DVD set released by Hear Music debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard charts at the end of April, and has already sold more than 100,000 copies.
Not bad company for a French Quarter street musician from the 6th Ward.
Before he grew into the tag "Grandpa" (and before he grew his Santa Claus beard), Small already had a long career in New Orleans music. Growing up in the Lafitte housing development, music became his refuge from an unhappy home life, Small said.
"My stepfather was a man who did not love his child," he said. "But my uncle would come to the house, and play the harmonica to me."
Small's uncle played in a band with former Ink Spot Lloyd Washington, and often let his nephew come to the Dew Drop Inn to hear them play. Small did not completely lose his sight to glaucoma until 2005, and as a young man, he made the rounds as a soul singer in local clubs. He recorded singles with legendary arranger Wardell Quezergue, some of which are available on Malaco and Tuff City Records compilations of New Orleans funk. In the early '60's, he recorded "I'm a Devil" for Bang! Records of New York, and made a splash performing it while wearing what some fans remember as a red devil's suit complete with horns and pitchfork.
"Well, it wasn't called a devil suit," he said. "It was a pretty, silk red suit, that looked good. It was a nice show." At the time, Small remembers, he was billed as "The Harmonica King."
Small was featured on out-of-town bills promoted by the day's top New Orleans booker, Joe Jones.
"I went on tour with The Temptations and I helped the Dixie Cups go up to New York," he said. "I also had the honor to meet Lieber and Stoller (in New York), although I don't think they would remember me now. I was a young kid when I was up there."
By the '80s, however, Small had had enough of the grueling schedule. Bad decisions and unfair contracts, he said, had soured him on the industry. So he took his music to the streets, where it would belong only to him and to the passersby who heard it.
Small had debuted as an entertainer on the streets of the Quarter at age 6, tap-dancing for quarters to bring home to his mother.
"I learned from watching Fred Astaire movies on television," he said. And now, Small is on television. On June 30, he performed the national anthem at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium. He and other "Playing For Change" musicians appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Conan O'Brien on Thursday.
"I have so much fun playing in the French Quarter," Small said. "And I'm still having fun."
by Alison Fensterstock, Contributing writer, The Times-Picayune
Friday July 17, 2009, 5:00 AM
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