Johnette and Scott Biography
Musician and author Johnette Downing and three-time Grammy® winner Scott Billington are the foremost children’s music performers from New Orleans. Their Swamp Romp program is a Louisiana dance party that brings the sounds of Cajun music, zydeco, traditional jazz, Isleño culture, swamp pop and New Orleans rhythm and blues to life for young ears. It is a toe-tapping, interactive, and authentic roots music experience that both children and parents will enjoy and long remember. Johnette’s gift for communicating with children is matched with smart musicianship and songs that make this tour of Louisiana’s rich cultural landscape fun for all in attendance.
About Johnette
Johnette Downing developed a love of music at an early age. As a child, her tuba-and-violin playing father and her saxophone-and-piano playing mother took Johnette and her siblings to the French Quarter in New Orleans, where they would stand in the doorways of clubs listening to jazz and ragtime. Her passion for roots music and for sharing music with children, in the way her parents had shared it with her, led Johnette to her career as “the Musical Ambassador to Children” and the “Pied Piper of Louisiana Music Traditions” (as media and clients have come to call her). She continues to bring her Louisiana roots music to children in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, Central America, North America and the Caribbean. The 2017 Louisiana Writer Award recipient, she has received twenty-two international awards for her twenty-four books and eleven recordings for children, including a 59th Grammy Award Participant Certificate. Johnette has teamed up with her harmonica-playing husband Scott Billington, who shares her passion for roots music, to form “Johnette and Scott,” a children’s musical duo.
About Scott
Scott Billington‘s multifaceted career in the music business began when his mother traded a book of Green Stamps for a harmonica, which she gave the 11-year-old as a Christmas present. By the time he was 16, he was performing in New England coffeehouses and clubs. Pursuing his love of blues and roots music, Scott went to work for Rounder Records in the mid-1970s. He has since produced over 100 albums of roots-oriented music for Rounder and other labels, which have won three Grammy® awards and 11 Grammy® nominations. Other awards include the Sweet Soul Music Award (Italy), the Keepin’ the Blues Alive Award (Memphis), and the Offbeat (New Orleans) Lifetime Achievement Award. In recognition of his work in Louisiana, Scott was appointed a Louisiana Colonel by Governor Edwin W. Edwards. His performances as a duet with Johnette Downing again bring his harmonica skills to the fore, in their program of roots music for children.
Performance Highlights
Grammy Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Grammy Museum, Cleveland, MS
Porretta Soul Festival, Porretta, Italy
Segerstrom Center for the Arts Family Fest, Costa Mesa, CA
New Orleans Jazz Museum, New Orleans, LA
IGA Conference, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Firehouse Center for the Arts, Newburyport, MA
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA
New Orleans Jazz Historical National Park, New Orleans, LA
Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA
High Point Public Library, High Point, NC
Hudson Children’s Book Festival, Hudson, NY
Boo at the Zoo, Audubon Zoo, New Orleans, LA
McCabe’s Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA
Louisiana Book Festival, Baton Rouge, LA
St. Nicholas Fair, New Orleans, LA
French Quarter Festival, New Orleans, LA
Nantucket Atheneum, Nantucket, MA
Harvest Festival, New Orleans, LA
Grand Kids Festival, Galveston, TX
The U.S. Mint, New Orleans, LA
Creole Tomato Festival, New Orleans, LA
The Bucktown Seafood Festival, Metairie, LA
Media Highlights
Steppin’ Out, WYES TV, New Orleans, LA
Folkscene, KPFK 90.7 Radio, Los Angeles, CA
Morning Show, WWL TV, New Orleans, LA
DittyTV, Memphis, TN
Apres midi, KRVS Public Radio, Lafayette, LA
Hilltown Family Variety Show, Northampton, MA
Around Town TV Show, Baton Rouge, LA
WJOP 96.3 FM Radio, Newburyport, MA
KATC-TV 3, Lafayette, LA
KLFY-TV 10, Lafayette, LA
WWOZ Radio, 90.7 FM, New Orleans, LA
Louisiana Proud, KBON Radio 101.1 FM, Eunice, LA
Kids Story Hour, WTUL 91.5 FM New Orleans, LA Radio Active Kids, Asheville, NC
