LEAD STORY

Profile: The One Man Band

Wednesday, 1 August 2007

By KRISTA TATE,
J Camp Live! Staff
Audio by NATALIE KING, AYEESHIK KOLE,
Photography by CARLO ACENAS.

xspf_player::start();
Life took a turn for musician Newton Grantine when he met his wife in New York. With their first son arriving, Grantine was forced to play music on the New York City streets for diaper money.

That was 31 years ago. To this day, Grantine continues to make a living as a street musician. He calls himself the “One Man Band.” Every day at Miami’s Bayside Marketplace, Grantine sets up his 50-year-old accordion, vintage trumpet, two kick drums, and sound system hoping to make enough money to survive. The red accordion with beads and gadgets clutched to the box is accompanied by a loud and attention grabbing voice singing and shouting, “Aye!”

Grantine was born in 1924 in Panama City. At the age of eighteen he joined the U.S. Army, where for six years he was a truck driver for the Navy, the Marines and the Army. “In the Marines I worked with everybody,” he said. He moved to New York City when he was 22. He began his music career playing on the busy streets for tips. Raising just enough money to get by, Grantine was able to find an apartment and food to eat. As years went by, Grantine became well-known in New York and gained the name “One Man Band.”

“I played for the 100th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty and played for everybody that died in the Second World War,” he said.

He was determined to work hard enough to put his son through West Point military academy. Grantine and his wife relocated to Miami 18 years ago to raise their second child. Now the “One Man Band” can be found on the pathway in front of the Guess clothing store.