Streetnote has put all of it's music on Sutros, a great place to upload music under the creative commons license!

check it out at HERE

All the recordings take place in the streets, engaging the performer as well as the listener onto this raw stage, making them aware of their “surroundings”.



Please take the time to scroll through these cities (on your left) and discover our talented street musicians that paint our urban soundscape everyday...



enjoy!

San Francisco
I started recording musicians in San Francisco in 2001. Over the last few years, I have become acquainted with the scene and how this city allows music to invade public space.

Malcolm Gregor Moray
I wanted to let you know that I have established a busking
section on Bagpipeforum.com. Basically, I'm offering free lessons on how to busk,
safely & profitably, geared toward pipers. Check it out. I think you'll find this
very interesting. Blessings,

Kim likes to play at duboce triangle. He plays next to the playground for the kids. He smailes and makes them smile with soft and sweet songs.

Don - Clarinet - march 2006
Don lives in Oakland.
He came here with a Saxophone but started playing the clarinet a long time ago and never stopped.

Cliff Junior - Percussion
March 2006

Cliff has played drums at the Warf for the last 15 years. Every weekend, he sits downs and plays for hours, watching the people go by, enjoying being surrounded by all those that come to San Fracnisco.

Robert Close - Opera
San Francisco - maiden lane - 2002

"Well, I started singing in 1973 right after high school, and, I studied in Italy and wasn’t planning on doing this a lot, you know, singing on the streets. Oh, well, it was about 1983 and, on a hot July night, I was living in San Raphel and was working at the opera house, but, during the summer we didn’t have jobs back then, so my wife suggested we go to the warf with our two little babies, which were one and two, and I sang opera out there with a boom box and a few cassette tapes (which I always use for practice.) It was a Friday night and was amazed with the amount of money I made in one hour. Partly, not so much the money was surprising, but the response from the people was so good. And I kept doing this through the eighties, you know, I did opera core every fall, and then in 1988, my wife took sick and she passed away in april 89. I had to have a job so I could raise the kids, so I started singing in front of Macy's in the spring. I started to really click down at Macy's as the “the guy who sings in front of Macys”and you know, I did that for the better part until 1993 and then I got in Phantom of the Opera in San San Francisco. I did the show for seven and a half years and at that time I was not allowed to do anything on the streets. Then I said to myselrf, after the kids are in college (which they are at now), I would actually start doing more Opera, so I came back to the street , ohh, three years ago."

Omer - singer songwriter
San Francisco - Valencia and 21st - 2003

Omer Traveres is a mendicant musician, a street singer, a minstrel, or you might call him a troubadour. Most any day, you can catch his act in one of the acoustically friendly doorways he favors along Valencia Street vetween 20th and 22nd. He works seven days a week, playing six to ten forty five minute sets on his guitar each day. He covers some santana, some beatles, some Buddy Holly, some Beethoven and of course some of his own compositions.

Robert - keyboard
San Francisco - chinatown - 2003

Walking down Stockton, you hear this amazingly clear voice, resonating over all the noise of the streets. It is usually Sunday, in Chinatown. People who walk past often look away and then back at robert, incredulous that it comes from him. His message is clear and he sings with intention.

Offstage, Robert sits back and enjoys lunch. He doesn't drink or smoke. He feels blessed that god gave him a second chance. You see, his devotion has led him back to his true love, music.

Ed Jackson - tap
San Francisco - Market and Powell - 2002

"I think people are confused, I think that they say:”why is he out here.” The entertainment business is hard. I would love to be on TV every night so you all could see me but, until I get to the Broadway, the silver screen or whatever the hell it is, this is my Broadway, on Market and Powell. I’m pretty much putting on a show for substance abuse people, some of the homeless and tourists. This is were I’m going to be. Enjoy it now."

"People are like: ”you so driven”. I’m driven because my ancestors went through so much. What kind of human being, or what kind of man would I be if I didn’t use that, if I didn’t use the blueprint that they made. Yeah, I have to work my ass off, yeah, I have to work twice as hard… it don’t matter, just get of your ass and do it. It’s like a Nike commercial: just do the shit man. Yeah it’s hard, we already know that. Do it. That what keeps me going."

Don Garrett - blues guitar
San Francisco - fisherman's wharf - 2002

"I go back to the draft and was in the army, from 60 to 62…I’m an old dude. And, while I was in, I came from Texas to California, down in Monterey. Anyways, I got out of the army a little bit early to get back to school, but that was bogus, cause all I wanted to do was bang on my guitar and sing the blues, you know."
"...And so a friend of mine and me, packed a duffle bag and a guitar, and we got in a Cadillac, some kind of ‘drive to California’ deal. Came to California in 63, 64. Actually, I was in Dallas on the day that Kennedy got shot so it had to be probably 64. So I came out to sing and played at lots of bars, coffee houses, clubs…it was the folk era, you know. It was a great time..."

San Francisco was the only place to be. And I kind of lived the life of what was going on, there was a lot going on, a lot of bad stuff going down. All you know about are the big name people, Janis Joplin, (we use to play in the same place) Hendrix, people that died…But the music was great and it was a great time overall. Lots of people paid a heavy price. How and why I got through it, god only knows. But anyway, I sung and played around for several years. I never really pursued a commercial career, I just shrugged it off. Anyway, I kind of got to the end of things, there was nothing left to get out of it. I knew it in my heart. The music was still there but there had to be a change…
In 1971, the Lord called my name and I got gloriously saved. I won’t go into it but that’s what happened to me, on a Saturday in April 1971. I’ve been in church for the last 30 years. Anyways, I just came back to the streets about five years ago, and not to sound too mystical, I felt like I should, spiritually speaking. It’s weird, I wonder why in the hell I’m on the street sometimes and a lot of people ask me what I’m doing out here."



Rico Diabolo - Casio keyboard
San Francisco, chinatown - 2002

"We’re talking about “Lords and Masters of the Universe”. I’m military, I was in with the air force, a world war two veteran, whether you want to believe it or not. Well that brings us to the thick of it. We got nine planets that we deal with, you see, I’m from Pluto and Neptune, that’s were I really live. I can live with living on Neptune, 22 hours is one day, but when it’s Pluto, there’s only 3 hours in a day, so I’ve been out here 2 days already! If I ain’t on Neptune, I’m on Pluto, either the fast lane or I’m cruising.”
“You can survive without living on a planet but not to long because you see, you can live on an astroplane for a while, but you end up becoming extinct. You got people out there floating on astroplane (shackyground), but give me a planet to live on, solid ground. Vortex is like a road to travel on, you know. There’s always been star wars, and I was born a star but often times, people don’t believe that.”




Larry - bucket drummer
San Francisco - Market Street - 2002

This recording was taken late night at around 9pm. I was on Market Street. Larry brought out his real drumset (cause he is a real good drummer) and was playing with the New Funk Generation. Brian on the bass, Charlie on the guitar.
When he takes the solo at the end of the song, you can hear a drumbreak on the buckets!

Mr. Xie - ehru
San Francisco - chinatown - 2002

Everytime I talked to mr Xie, I had to find a person to translate on the street. It became this big thing and alot of people would stop, trying to figure out what was going on.

Mike
You must have seen this guy -- either on the Telegraph Avenue sidewalk near the UC campus, or near the downtown Berkeley BART station, or by the Cannery in San Francisco. He's the street musician with long red hippie hair, a hammer dulcimer on stilts, and fingers a little like Edward Scissorhands'. He usually draws a small crowd with the mesmerizing sound of his instrument -- something like bells and shadows, a veritable Turkish steambath of overtones, a sound that first gets your attention from about a half a block away.
Masley plays the cymbalom, a multi-stringed Hungarian instrument related to the santoor and zither. Traditionally, the cymbalom is played with hammers, and Masley has ingeniously extended the range of the instrument by developing his own "bowhammers," which he fits to all eight of his fingers while using picks on his thumbs. The bowhammers have three inches of violin bow on their ends, allowing for bowing as well as striking and plucking.

The Great Morgani - Accordionist
Santa Cruz -2006

I've been performing on the street for about...this is my thenth year. I didn't start covered up. I mean, actually I looked very - excuse the word - normal. And then I turned into this man. This is actually pretty normal compared some of my normal stuff. So I decided jeez, I wonder if I can play with gloves. So I Tried something with glovews and sure I can play and then I covered the accordiaon. So I can play with gloves over material over keys.

th only piece of skin showing was my face so I started covering my face, So the last five years I've been covered most of the time so people don't know how old I am. I had a little kid come up to me and say "are you man or a a lady" I said I'm and Alien

so, this is what I do. I'm the great Modigani. Having alot of fun. so in ten years of street performing, I have 40 accordions, 110 costumes and a repertoire of 1400 songs. the madness continues. I'm having fun. make kids smile , I haven't made any cry this year.


Bud Sasse - guitar
santa cruz - 2006

I play music because I can't help it. I'm A folk writer and singer. I want to write music that says something. I am really sick of people standing up that I don't feel are saying anything conducive to anyone else.

I just love playing on the street. People smile when I play my music
and i'd rather play my music here with all that wonderful surrounding than in my room in front of a computer.




Dan Smetana - flute
santa cruz - 2006
I have always played but I never thought that it would be a source of income for me, but then it became necessary. So I started focusing on that. That was about five years ago. Since then I found that I could travel around and make enough money to survive and gas money, all the necessary things ... but not enough to get rich, but at least I have the freedom to do what I want

When I am playing music, it's one of the times that I am not in so much pain. It takes my focus away from that. I can put my full attetion into music so it alleviates the other stress and reality of life. But still, i'm in contact with people and I get alot of appreciation out of it cause people love the music and I get pleasure out of giving it to them, even if they don't give me money


Cal Harris -
Santa Cruz - 2006

Playing on the street, it's a funny situation, you know, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. It seems to me that when you are playing your best, people don't even notice. But you meet beautiful, good people like that. But you gotta keep picking

sometimes people walk by and they don't even see you
you might as well be invisible. Sometimes I wonder "did I drink a clear laquer before I came here..."

I'm not playing on the street by choice. I'm playing by necessity and it's a necessity that not everybody understands. You can only make enough in the day time to get a cup of coffee in the morning and pray for food

Dave - Didjeridoo
Santa Cruz - 2006

"I think that playing on the streets is hard. It's hard for some people, because they don't make any money for one but they play to make it in this society and alot of people just don't support that. So it's hard for some people to make 10 dollars a day playing the guitar and some people are not very giving because they are so consumed by the consumtion of the world. You know, everybaody wants to own something new here, in America, instead of sharing what they have already. So hopefully we can share and change the world from person to person and make some people understand why it's so important to support people like this... we need to make the world SHIFT, and to shed and to change hopefully. So kids in the future, our kids will be able to come out here and play music and follow their hearts and live to the fullest of what their life is."



The Kitchen Syncopators was born out of love for old southern music and necessity in 1998 by Frank Lemon and Woodrow Pines while they starved, sharing floor space in a tool shed in rainy western Oregon. They spent the next few years cutting their teeth on the streets of New Orleans not so starving, and sharing floor space in a one bedroom shotgun in the 9th Ward, heading to the west coast in the summers for the kinder weather, and easy living in the open air. Joined the next year by their old friends Bob Scarecrow and Charlie Bean from previous ensembles, they've evolved into their own unique honest sound with a blend of rural and urban oldtime stringband, blues, ragtime, jazz, and jug band music and have since built quite a name and following for a few hobo's. In the last few years Ryan Donahue and Slim Nelson have been performing and recording with the band in New Orleans and occasionally on the west coast.

link to their web page


Cal Harris - dobro
Santa Cruz - 2004

Seattle -2006
Seattle was a great city. The street musicians were friendly and the level was good. The were all trying to create something new, more along the lines of performance thatn simple street music.


Los Angeles
Los Angeles has a musical soul. Even though the city is spread out and has no center, I spent my days walking around Venice beach, up and down the broadwalk. It is a musical springboard, where artists meet and get together to elevate the creative vibe of the city. After a few days, I got to know most of the local musicians.


Ibrahim Mohammed

Every Saturday and Sunday, Ibrahim puts down his paintbrush and invites friends and musicians onto his stage. He has a central spot on Venice and has been there since 1989. The music starts and the heat rises. Before you know it, people are singing along, furious drums are keeping a maddening rythm and people are just standing around with their ears open. This recording was taken at the height of a jam, the musicians remain unknown.

ibrahim bio - link -

Walking down Venice, you probably wouldn’t notice him. He plays so quietly that you wouldn’t even stop to listen. But he is there every day, Playing along to his little drum machine.
He spoke softly. In Vegas, He got in trouble for buying stolen goods and moved to Venice a few years ago. Somehow he was framed. You always here these crazy stories but rob seemed to the less crazy of all. He didn’t expect anything, he didn’t complain about anyone.
Please, listen to his solo, it will come on in a minute or so…

As I sat there for a few hours talking, I realized that he was making nothing, maybe 3 dollars a day. What a shame…

Harry Perry has been the most famous skater in Venice Beach since 1973 when he made his debut as a turbaned, guitar playing, street performer. Originally he wore quad roller skates but later he made the transition to inline skates. Harry has appeared in many movies and videos and in 2002 a likeness of Harry was installed in one of the theme parks at Disneyland in Anaheim California. At one point in his career as a street performer Harry and activist "Jingles" won a free speach lawsuit in a United States Federal court.

I ran into geranamo a few days before recording him. He was hard to talk too. Always looking away, waiting for the next catch.
His music is as short as his attention span. Always thinking about money. “ well, I don’t care much about your cause, you see, I’m all about profit” I would find that a lot here in Venice.

The next time I saw him, he was standing with other performers, in a circle. They were arguing over “spots”. Pointing at empty spaces, they would shout out names. They were parceling off the boardwalk, yet, in the back of their minds, they knew something was wrong. “space doesn’t belong to anyone” they all nodded…



Krishna consciousness is not something imposed on the mind. On the contrary, it's already inside of each of us, waiting to come out, like fire in a match. Chanting Hare Krishna brings out that natural, pure state of mind.

The chant is called a mantra, a vibration of sound that cleanses the mind, freeing it from anxiety and illusion. And this is a mantra anyone can chant.

link to krishna.org

the Venice Beach Drum Circle is a sort of underground (meaning unstructured, unorganized, by the people for the people) subculture risen from the need to openly express the timelessness of this artist community. It is exactly what comes to mind if you think about it. It is a bunch of people with drums (sometimes, water jugs, cans with sand, or any other contraption one can think of), sitting around in a circle and playing "together" to create a harmonious sound of such raw primal energy.




New Orleans - 2006
I got a year after Katrina. It felt very odd and deserted.
I managed to find a few street musicnas... some old timers, but heard that most of them had left the city.

Uncle Scam - street performer
Cambridge - Harvard Square -2006

uncle scam has his own great page featuring street performers in cambridge
www.unclescam.org

Madison - 2004 - 2006
Madison is one of those cities that always amazes you. I was planning on stopping there overnight but ended up staying there 4 days and meeting two great musicians. Between the lakes, russian dumpings, in the company of thieves, bar that feel like living rooms, something seemed right in this city.

Just 80 miles west of Milwaukee and 142 miles northwest of Chicago, Madison, Wisconsin, is a veritable hotbed for free speech and free thought. Its history of grassroots activism and political progressivism, its citizens’ belief in the benefits of hard work, the availability and access to educational resources and the careful stewardship of the land all have cast a favorable spotlight on this Midwestern mecca.

Walter Gentry, saxophone
Chicago, 2006

Walter has 3 saxes. He plays professionally around town (buddy guy's slippery noodle, blues on haldstead...). His tone is warm and he always smiles. He is set up on Michigan, one of Chicago's busiest street during "shopping hours". Behind him, cars whizz by and cabs honk their horn. A bus stops and lets out a sigh. I sit and listen to him for a few songs. It sounds like someone dialed the radio to a smooth jazz station.

We end up talking for a while, but like all pro's time becomes money and now was that time.

The Sisters of Praize - string quartet
Chicago - 2004

These four performers are the daughters of Deborah, a licensed minister and "band manger". They have played together for the last 4 years. Chaunte, age 13, is on the violin. Monique, 15 is on the cello. Sharice, 20, is on the 2nd violin. Rickena, 22 is on the viola.

you can find out more about them at www.jrministries.org


Garry - singer songwriter
Chicago - 2004

Garry is blind. When I first heard him, I thought of simply recording him, without letting him know. It had been a long day and I was tired of asking street musicians permission to record them. But after listening to a few of his songs, I wanted to know more about him.
Garry was born in Joliette. He's been in Chicago for the last 12 years and mostly plays music in the streets. He has no shame about it. He is playing for the money. " NO one hires a blind". I guess that they have it tough.
PLease take a time to look a t his third hand, looking over his loot. He collects his money after every song... just to make sure that no one steals it!

Hypnotic Brass Band -
Chicago- Los Angeles - 2004

I meet up with them in LA. They had just finished producing their album and were playing on the streets of Venice beach, promoting it. When I got to Chicago later in the summer, they were too, playing on the streets.
here is how to get in touch with them:
www.myspace.com/hypnoticbusiness


Joan Baby - blues
Chicago - 2004

Joan was alot of fun to talk to. She was roudy and proud of her music. She was going on about how they kicked her out of the blues fest and how she now plays in the street instead ... "cause it's better"

Mr Taps - tap dancing
Chicago - state street - 2004

Mr. Taps is also the "king of whimsical dancing". He sure was wimsical. When I first met him, he had ripped the backside of his pants and hadn't noticed it. He continued to tap as if everything was normal until a pass by asked him if he need safety pins.

Mr's taps is humour in the streets. He had his two side kicks, tapping along to his encouragment, following in his footsteps. Listen to him as he taps. a special treat.

Drumers
Chicago - state street - 2004

These guys were really good but as soon as I started recording, they got self consious and didn't want to give me a great recording. It happens. But you can still tell that they seriously kick butt.