The kid with the trumpet is more than stylin’

His name is Gabriel Angelo. He’s the kid you see downtown playing the trumpet, and trust us, you haven’t heard the last of him.

Gabriel can be heard at the Ferry Building or at Union Square, blowing jazz standards to the delight and general wonderment of shoppers and passers-by. He got to play with jazz legend Arturo Sandoval at the SF Jazz Festival, and earlier this year passed a preliminary audition for America’s Got Talent.

Gabriel counts his public performances toward a lofty goal of 10,000 hours of practice. What he doesn’t count is any break times or interruptions. The kid used a stopwatch to time 5,043 playing hours, from January 7, 2006, through through Sept. 25. He has posted a portion of his playing log on his blog, along with a section labeled “extended explanation.”

And he doesn’t just play. Gabriel entertains his sidewalk audiences with daft trumpet twirls, tap dancing, and a pretty mean Marlon Brando impression between notes of “The Godfather” on his trumpet.

7×7 wrote up Gabriel for his impeccable fashion style, which is uncanny, but you’ve got to look past the clothes to see the man. Or the kid.

Gabriel’s first blog post in August 2010 introduces himself matter-of-factly before giving the name and phone number of the financial manager at his school so you can send money to help pay his tuition. Wow. Boom. Any questions?

You can pop over to his blog to get a sense of this remarkable guy, or follow @MasterBlasterG on Twitter. Someday, B-listers like Taraji Henson and Tracy Morgan will be clamoring for a piece of Gabriel, instead of him having to politely ask on Twitter for them to follow him, without response. Even though they were so nice to him on the street.

Jesse Garnier

Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.