Jazz Fest Performance Date Announced!
It’s official! We will be performing in the Kid’s Tent at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Sunday, May 5, 2024! The time will be announced later. Get your tickets now, we will be happy to see you!
Feeling the Festival Vibe! Newsletter
What, when, and where? I hope to see you there!
Pack up the kiddos and boogie on over to the Kids Tent at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Sunday, April 30, 2023 between 2:15-3:00 for some Louisiana tunes for children!
Joining me again this year is three-time Grammy winner (and hubby) Scott Billington! There will be plenty of fan favorites and new songs in this toe-tapping, two-stepping féte for the whole family.
I mentioned in my last newsletter that I have a new book coming out this fall with illustrator Heather Stanley through Pelican Publishing, and as promised, I am revealing the cover to you, my subscribers, first! Heather and I have two other books together (Petit Pierre and the Floating Marsh and Mademoiselle Grands Doigts), and in this book, she really captured the boldness and wildness of my Cajun tall tale My Parrain is the Loup Garou.
CDs Have Arrived!
The physical CDs for my Jumpin' Jitters, It's Halloween album, of slightly spooky, mostly silly holiday songs for children, have finally arrived!
"Johnette Downing is a New Orleans treasure, and Jumping Jitters shows why she is so beloved - a super fun, spooky fais-do-do that kids and adults will enjoy! And if you're anything like me, you'll want to listen to it year-round!"
—DJ LizE, The Kid's Show, WTUL New Orleans 91.5fm
Upcoming events
April 30 at 2:15-3:00, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Kids Tent, New Orleans Fairgrounds
May 4 at 11:00-11:45, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, 916 N. Peters, French Market
May 22-26, Arts Learning for Massachusetts, School Concert Tour
June 1 at 11:00-11:45, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, 916 N. Peters, French Market
June 3 at 2:00-4:00, Book signing, Barnes & Noble Metairie, Veterans Blvd., Metairie, LA
June 6-8, at 10:00 and 2:00, Livingston Parish Libraries, LA
June 16 at 10:00 and 2:00, LaSalle Parish Libraries, LA
June 21 at 10:00 and 2:00, St. James Parish Libraries, LA
July 6 at 11:00-11:45, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, 916 N. Peters, French Market
July 7-8 at 10:00 and 2:00, Ascension Parish Libraries, LA
July 12 at 6:30-7:15 PM, Hamilton-Wenham Library, Hamilton, MA
August 4 at 9:45-10:30, Nantucket Atheneum, Garden, Nantucket, MA
I was grocery shopping yesterday when a young man came up to me and asked if I was Johnette Downing. His mother, Ms. Fontenot, was a client who hired me for decades to perform for her summer camp in New Orleans. The young man said he remembered being in the audience of my concerts when he was a young camper there. He then told me that I had just performed at HIS son's school. Ms. Fontenot, her son, and her grandson may have no idea how much it means to me to know that I was part of three generations of their lovely family in some small way.
Thank you all for allowing me to experience this one precious life with you and your families. - Johnette
Grammy Awards Here We Come!
Congratulations to Scott for his Grammy Nomination in Best Historical Album category for producing the box set “Life’s Work, A Retrospective” about the life and career of legendary artist Doc Watson. We will be heading to the Grammys in Los Angeles to walk the red carpet on February 5th. Best of luck to Scott! We can’t wait for the event.
Jazzing it Up a Bit at Jazz Fest!
We will be jazzing it up a little bit in the Kids Tent at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on Sunday, May 8, 2022 from 3:40-4:25 PM. In additional to fan favorites such as Today Is Monday in Louisiana, Feliciana LaRoux and Wiggle Worms, we are adding two jazz tunes to the set list, a family-friendly Bourbon Street Parade and my own Who Got the Baby in the King Cake?
During the pandemic, Scott and I decided to stretch our musical muscles and learn some traditional jazz standards on the ukulele and chromatic harmonica. What we came up with is a set of original and traditional jazz tunes for grown-ups, just for the fun of it. Little did we know, we could use those new brain wrinkles to jazz up our children’s concert at Jazz Fest this week, and our grown-up concert at the Porretta Soul Festival in Porretta Terme, Italy this July.
So we hope you parade on over to the Kids Tent this Sunday for some Louisiana roots music for families!
The Spanish Tinge: Louisiana Music Pioneers of Canary Islands Descent is published!
(Photo Captions: #1 Book cover, #2 Scott Billington, Johnette Downing and Eduardo Perez in the Ediciones Idea publishing office, and #3 Scott signing his very first published book to Carol Perez Nunez, the daughter of Irvan Perez.)
Scott and I are pleased to announce that our book (for grownups) The Spanish Tinge, Louisiana Music Pioneers of Canary Islands Descent was published in Spanish by Ediciones Idea in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. This is our first book project together, and we enjoyed researching and writing about the musical link between Louisiana and the Canary Islands, The book honors the legacy of three key Louisiana musicians of Canary Islands lineage: jazz clarinetist Alicide “Yellow” Nuñez; Cajun accordion player Joe Falcon; and décima singer Irvan Perez, and celebrates their contributions as pioneers of three forms of American music at pivotal moments in American music history.
The book may be purchased through the publisher Ediciones Idea.
We are deeply grateful to Jose Carlos Hernandez Santana, Carol Perez Nunez, Wade Falcon, Robert Nunez, Francisco Pomares, Eduardo Perez (Edward T. Riker), Greg Lambousy, Jonathan Cabrera Ascensio, David Kunian, New Orleans Jazz Museum, Melissa Smith, Bruce Raeburn, Alania Hebert, Michael Leathem, Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans Jazz Club Collection, Tulane University Hogan Jazz Archive, Music Rising, Charlene Bonnette, State Library of Louisiana, William de Marigny Hyland, Catherine Frank, John Hickey, Chris Strachwitz, Jimmy LaRocca, Miguel Angel Navarro Menderos, Wrenna M. Poirrier, Joseph D Poirrier, and so many others who helped us make this book a reality!
Swamp Romp featured in the L.A. Parent Magazine Jingle Holiday Gift Guide!
Swamp Romp Earns a Fids and Kamily Award!
The Best Kids and Family Music of 2019: 14th Annual Fids and Kamily Music Award Winners
It is time to announce the 14th Annual Fids and Kamily Music Awards, celebrating the best in music for kids and families from the past year. For more than a decade, we've tallied the votes of kids music experts across the country to name those albums deserving of highest acclaim.
This year's top spot goes to previous Fids & Kamily Award winners The Okee Dokee Brothers for their album Winterland. There are a number of other artists familiar to the winners' list as well as some Fids and Kamily newcomers making up the top 12.
You can listen to selections from the top 12 by listening to this weekend's Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child on the air or by streaming it on the show’s website starting Sunday evening.
The Top 12 albums of 2019 are (in order):
1. The Okee Dokee Brothers - Winterland
2. The Lucky Band - Buenos Diaz
3. Josh Lovelace - Growing Up
4. Sonia de los Santos - Alegría
5. Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could - Under the Big Umbrella
6. Renee & Friends - Kindred
7. Johnette Downing - Swamp Romp
8. Randy Kaplan - Shake It and Break It
9. Story Pirates - Backstroke Raptor
10. Alphabet Rockers - The Love
11. Andrew & Polly - Go For the Moon
12. Oran Etkin - Finding Friends Far from Home