Grandpa Elliott

Grandpa Elliott
Elliott on Royal Street
Background information
Birth name	Elliott Small
Also known as	Uncle Remus
Born	1944 (age 73–74)
Occupation(s)	Street musician
Instruments	Harmonica

Grandpa Elliott Small, born Elliot Small in 1944, also known as Uncle Remus, is a veteran street-musician in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. He plays the harmonica, sings, and is a street icon in New Orleans.

Growing up in the Lafitte Housing Projects, Small developed a love of music as a young boy, in part to deal with the pains of an unhappy home life. Small's uncle was a professional musician who worked with Lloyd Washington of the Ink Spots, and often let his nephew come to the Dew Drop Inn to hear them play. One day when his uncle left for work without his harmonica, Small picked it up and put it to his mouth. "Oooh, it was awful," he said, laughing. "He chewed tobacco. I had to sterilize that thing." The uncle gave young Elliott a harmonica, and he fell in love with the sound of the mouth harp, teaching himself by playing along with the music on his mama's radio. At home Small's mother favored classical music, giving the youngster diverse tastes at an early age. Teaching himself to dance from watching Fred Astaire movies on television, Small began performing on street corners for change, dancing while singing and playing his harmonica.

"They brought me to New York to tap on Broadway when I was 6 or 7, and my mama got killed up there," he said. The man they lived with beat them both and ended up killing his mother. After it happened, his grandmother brought Small back to New Orleans and gave him and his older sister Frances a good life. "She was a sweet old lady," he 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."

As a young man, Small then made the rounds as a soul singer in local clubs. He recorded singles with arranger Wardell Quezergue, some of which are available on Malaco and Tuff City Records compilations of New Orleans funk. In the early '60s, Small's family relocated to New York City, where he took his first steps as a professional entertainer. Small once again played on the streets in between regular gigs, which included a role in a stage revival of Show Boat, helped the Louisiana vocal group The Dixie Cups go up to New York, opened on tour with The Temptations, and cut a few of his own R&B singles. One was entitled "I'm a Devil," recorded for Bang! Records. and Small promoted the record with live appearances 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." He also recorded his own "Girls Are Made for Lovin'" in 1969, a Wardell Quezergue (“Big Q”) production which has the feel of something by Curtis Mayfield, maybe, or Smokey Robinson. It’s not an identifiably New Orleans record, although it was made there, originally released on the New Sound label and picked up by Bang.