A Greenville teenager is a high-level jazz guitar player and is quickly becoming a star thanks in part to his street busking.
Here's the full story from The Post and Courier.
An excerpt:
In the year since that Instagram video posted in 2023, it has turned the high school student, who starting busking in Greenville at age 9, into a mini jazz sensation. It was reposted on The Jazz Estate, a popular Instagram page with 740,000 followers. Promoters at Dollywood in Tennessee saw the clip and booked him for a show at their resort.
Now, he’s 14 years old with nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram, including music stars Lenny Kravitz, Sheila E. and Jason Isbell.
“There’s so many buskers downtown doing a variety of different kinds of things,” said Matt Dingledine, a longtime Greenville music teacher, “but no one's doing what Ronnie’s doing.”
After the program began in the early 2000s, musicians were required to sign up for time slots, capping the number of weekly performers. Now, with 80 permits held this year, there's no limit as long as they play between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. and change locations every hour.
When Elliott started at age 9, he was so young that when he got his permit, it didn’t cover the city’s standard 10-year background check. His parents still accompany him downtown.
Elliott isn't one of the everyday regulars. He rarely plays during the winter, and during the spring and summer, he only goes out every few weeks. But when he's out there, he shines.
Rather than popular Taylor Swift or Prince songs, he plays jazz — particularly old-school jazz.
The Greenville Journal caught wind in 2019, profiling him as part of a street performers series at age 9.
He later created an Instagram, “ronnieelliottguitar," posting videos of him attempting complicated chords in his room, performing in bars with professional musicians four times his age and busking in the Greenville streets. Multiple Instagram clips received hundreds of thousands of views with a few reaching millions.
In 2020, he started studying under professional guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg in New York City. In 2023, he won a national jazz soloist competition by DownBeat magazine. He regularly books gigs around Greenville, performing at The Wheel Sessions, Artisphere, Fall for Greenville and Boulevard Blues.
This year, he was a top 10 national finalist at the Dallas International Guitar Festival, catching the eye of rock musician Tommy Taylor, who called him “one of the most amazing young guitarists out there.”
“He’s kind of a trendsetter,” Dingledine said. “I think other people are seeing what he's doing and saying, 'Hey, I want to do that, too.' He's inspiring for so many other people that are in that high school age.”
Here's the full story from The Post and Courier.
An excerpt:
In the year since that Instagram video posted in 2023, it has turned the high school student, who starting busking in Greenville at age 9, into a mini jazz sensation. It was reposted on The Jazz Estate, a popular Instagram page with 740,000 followers. Promoters at Dollywood in Tennessee saw the clip and booked him for a show at their resort.
Now, he’s 14 years old with nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram, including music stars Lenny Kravitz, Sheila E. and Jason Isbell.
“There’s so many buskers downtown doing a variety of different kinds of things,” said Matt Dingledine, a longtime Greenville music teacher, “but no one's doing what Ronnie’s doing.”
After the program began in the early 2000s, musicians were required to sign up for time slots, capping the number of weekly performers. Now, with 80 permits held this year, there's no limit as long as they play between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. and change locations every hour.
When Elliott started at age 9, he was so young that when he got his permit, it didn’t cover the city’s standard 10-year background check. His parents still accompany him downtown.
Elliott isn't one of the everyday regulars. He rarely plays during the winter, and during the spring and summer, he only goes out every few weeks. But when he's out there, he shines.
Rather than popular Taylor Swift or Prince songs, he plays jazz — particularly old-school jazz.
The Greenville Journal caught wind in 2019, profiling him as part of a street performers series at age 9.
He later created an Instagram, “ronnieelliottguitar," posting videos of him attempting complicated chords in his room, performing in bars with professional musicians four times his age and busking in the Greenville streets. Multiple Instagram clips received hundreds of thousands of views with a few reaching millions.
In 2020, he started studying under professional guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg in New York City. In 2023, he won a national jazz soloist competition by DownBeat magazine. He regularly books gigs around Greenville, performing at The Wheel Sessions, Artisphere, Fall for Greenville and Boulevard Blues.
This year, he was a top 10 national finalist at the Dallas International Guitar Festival, catching the eye of rock musician Tommy Taylor, who called him “one of the most amazing young guitarists out there.”
“He’s kind of a trendsetter,” Dingledine said. “I think other people are seeing what he's doing and saying, 'Hey, I want to do that, too.' He's inspiring for so many other people that are in that high school age.”
