Hitting the High Notes on a Hollywood Corner

Despite the lyrics of the old Joni Mitchell song, Adam Stawinski doesn’t play his clarinet for free. Appearing three hours a day six days a week at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, he says he averages $15 an hour in contributions from passers-by. Recently, though, Stawinski--whose nickname is “Pleyitlikitis”--got a surprise when a casually dressed man in his 30s silently graced the collection box with $269 in the largest single contribution the street musician has ever received.

Stawinski, 68, a former vacuum salesman who collects Social Security and lives with his daughter in Panorama City, was first inspired to play his clarinet on the street more than 10 years ago after seeing a man in a wheelchair playing saxophone at a Denver mall.

At one point, says the musician, who recently moved to Los Angeles from Denver because the cold weather there interfered with his playing, he almost gave up performing due to the loss of his upper teeth. But after a two-year hiatus, Stawinski says, he tried it again and found that he could play even better without teeth because his bare gums on top of the mouthpiece produce an improved vibrato.

Stawinski says he knows more than 700 tunes from memory, mostly longtime favorites such as “Home on the Range” and “White Christmas.”