| Elliott Stuart Kerman |
| Elliott was born on November 6th. He was born in NYC, where he grew up listening to his parents' jazz collection, and sometimes imitated Louis Armstrong, to their amusement. According to his mother, he started singing before he started talking. He loved jazz even then and still writes and sings jazz a lot today, scats brilliantly, and listens to music such as Mel Torme, Steve Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, Earth Wind & Fire, and Lester Young. Unfortunately, we don't have many facts about Elliott's childhood. He describes his first stage experience in Overexposed as being in elementary school, drumming and singing "Little Drummer Boy." We know that he high school Elliott was already singing, and that he starred as Curly in Oklahoma (must've been cute). In high school he also played basketball and discovered that physics is wild. Elliott went to Brown University for college, and majored in physics. He fully intended on becoming a physicist, but he still joined the Brown a capella group called The High Jinks. In 1979 Sean joined him in the group and the two became friends. After college Elliott moved back to NYC, as did Sean and two of their other friends from The High Jinks, Steve Keyes and David Styx. Elliott was working at New York Telephone, but decided to try to get the guys to start a barbershop group to sing with him on the streets of NYC. They agreed and tried to come up with a name, rejecting "The Brandy You're a Fine Girls" and "The Soul Barbers," as well as many others, on the way. Eventually they became Rockapella. Elliott has seen Rockapella through four basses, two high tenors, two second tenors, and two vocal percussionists, and in 2003 he stands as the only remaining founding member, and its a good thing too because the group could not have found a better baritone. He has watched his little idea for singing on the streets rise through singing on a WPIX birthday special, to starring in a Spike Lee PBS special, to being the house band on a childrens' TV show, to being perhaps the number one a capella group in the world. He must be very proud. On a more personal note, Elliott was married to his wife Debbie in June of 1997, and with luck in about 16 months, Debbie was obstetricious. Their son Eli was born on July 16 of 1999. El and Debbie's second son, Jules, was born in April of 2003.Elliott likes to play tennis and still loves physics and astronomy, even though Rockapella happened. |
| Sources for this biography include Overexposed, an interview from the East Coast A Capella Summit, various mini-biographies, and information from Elliott himself. Copyright 2001-2002 Do It RockapElliott! |