Greg Pattillo -- Beatboxing on Flute

I stole this from Esquire -- this guy is awesome.

Click here to view Greg Pattillo's latest, an original creation called "Freedom Jazz Dance".

Greg Pattillo's flute performance better suits the streets than symphony suites. That's why this classically trained musician has taken his talent straight to the people, using YouTube to show off his ability to play flute and beat box simultaneously. His versions of the Super Mario Brothers (shown below), Inspector Gadget and Sesame Street themes have garnered millions of hits on YouTube and turned this New York City street musician into an overnight sensation.

Seattle-bred Pattillo previously worked as a teacher and professional musician in Ohio, while attaining his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in flute performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He gave that up four years ago to develop an original style, first playing the streets of San Francisco and later New York. "About two years ago I moved out here and that was when I was finally able to do melody over the beat," says Pattillo. "The first big piece that I figured that out on was Super Mario Brothers."

After posting that initial Mario Bros. clip on YouTube, people began approaching Pattillo as he played to make requests or propose jobs. Once, a photographer offered Pattillo a gig with Bono. He never met the U2 singer, but Pattillo did become a spokesman for Product Red, Bono’s campaign to raise money for AIDS assistance in Africa. Pattillo posed for a Boston billboard and banked $500. "I turned the biggest trick I ever did out there on the street," says Pattillo.

So far Pattillo’s signature sound hasn't amounted to much beside a little pocket change and a lot of recognition. He works full time at the grocery chain Trader Joe's and performs in the subway system during his lunch breaks. Pattillo hopes that one day he can return to the more profitable classical world (he does a mean version of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", which you can see below), but on his own terms. "Ultimately I would like to see what I'm doing get some kind of institutional cred," says Pattillo. "It would be nice if what I did now other flute players started to pick up."

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