John Boutté (born November 3, 1958)John Boutte biography at All About Jazz
is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer based in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana, who has been active since the mid-1990s. He is known for a diverse music style that goes beyond jazz to R&B,

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

. He is the younger brother of the jazz and gospel singer Lillian Boutté, and a relative of cartoonist

George Herriman George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip ''Krazy Kat'' (1913–1944). More influential than popular, ''Krazy Kat'' had an appreciative audience a ...

Life and career

Boutté was born into a 7th Ward Creole-

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family in New Orleans. Exposed to the local culture such as Mardi Gras parades and jazz funerals since childhood, Boutté also grew up listening to R&B music of

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

and the like. He played trumpet and cornet in marching bands in his junior high and high school days. During this time, he also formed an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

group and sang on the streets. Boutté studied business at

Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Roman Catholic, Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic Historically black c ...

where he was in ROTC. After he graduated, he was commissioned in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

where he served for the next four years. When he returned, he started to work for a credit union instead of entering into the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

. When he met

, he started to seriously consider becoming a professional singer. Wonder acknowledged his talent and recommended him to pursue career in music. He soon joined Lillian on her tour to Europe, and his professional career started. He was a featured vocalist on Lillian's live album, ''Gospel United'', released in 1994. In 1996, he released his debut album titled ''Through the Eyes of a Child''. He was the featured guest vocalist on Cuban group Cubanismo!'s ''Mardi Gras Mambo'', recorded in New Orleans. Boutté has been working with ex-

Cowboy Mouth Cowboy Mouth is an American band based in New Orleans, Louisiana known for fusing alternative rock with album-oriented rock, roots rock, and jam band influences. Formed in 1992, the band saw early mainstream success in the 1990s, including th ...

guitarist and singer, Paul Sanchez which led to a collaborated effort ''Stew Called New Orleans'', released in 2009. Boutté was also featured on

John Scofield John Scofield (born December 26, 1951) is an American guitarist and composer. His music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention as part of the band of Miles Davis; he ...

's 2009 album, '' Piety Street'', singing the lead on three tracks. Singers Tricia Boutté (Sister Teedy) and Tanya E. Boutté are John's nieces. Boutté's "Treme Song" on his ''Jambalaya'' album is the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's series, '' Treme''. Boutté appears in ''Tremes season 1 finale, serenading Kim Dickens' character before she leaves New Orleans. He also appears in season 2, episode 1, performing several songs (including "Accentuate the Positive"), and he sings onstage in ''Treme'' season 3, episode 10.

Awards and honors

''OffBeat'''s Best of The Beat Awards

Discography

John Boutte-The Boutte Family Sunday Praise

Albums

* 1996: ''Through the Eyes of a Child'' (Dinosaur) * 1997: ''Scotch and Soda'' ( Boutteworks johnboutte.com) * 1998: ''Friends'' * 2001: ''At the Foot of Canal Street'' (Boutteworks johnboutte.com) * 2003: John Boutté & Uptown Okra / ''Carry Me Home'' (Boutteworks johnboutte.com)) * 2003: ''Jambalaya'' (Boutteworks johnboutte.com) * 2007: ''John Boutté and Conspirare'' (Boutteworks johnboutte.com) * 2008: ''Good Neighbor'' (Boutteworks johboutte.com) * 2009: John Boutté and Paul Sanchez / ''Stew Called New Orleans'' (Threadhead) * 2012: ''All About Everything'' (Boutteworks johnboutte.com) * 2019: ''A "Well Tempered" Boutté'' (Boutteworks johnboutte.com)

Guest appearances

* 1994: Lillian Boutté with Gospel United / ''Live at Odense Koncerthus'' (Gospel United Production) * 2000: Cubanismo / ''Mardi Gras Mambo'' (Rykodisc) * 2002: Doc Houlind Ragtime Band meets John Boutte / ''Live At FEMO'' (Music Mecca) * 2008: Paul Sanchez / ''Exit to Mystery Street'' (Threadhead) * 2009: Glen David Andrews / ''Walking Through Heaven's Gate'' (Threadhead) * 2009: John Scofield / ''Piety Street'' (Universal Classics) * 2009: Tom McDermott / ''New Orleans Duets'' (Rabadash) * 2009: Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt / ''Slide To Freedom 2'' (

NorthernBlues Music NorthernBlues Music is a Canadian independent record label, which specializes in blues music. The label was established in 2001, and a number of its artists and albums have since been nominated for and won Blues Music Awards. President Fred Li ...

) * 2010:

Galactic Galactic is an American funk band from New Orleans, Louisiana. Origins and background Formed in 1994 as an octet (under the name Galactic Prophylactic) and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a ...

/ ''YA-KA-MAY'' * 2016: John was the charity singer in the movie ''When the Bough Breaks'' * 2017: Todd Rundgren / '' Beginning(Of the End)'' / (Cleopatra Records)

References

External links

John Boutte, New Orleans Jazz Vocalist
(Official site) * *
John Boutté
John Boutté MusiCodex Page {{DEFAULTSORT:Boutte, John 1958 births Living people 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers American blues singers American jazz singers 21st-century African-American male singers 21st-century American male singers American rhythm and blues singers Louisiana Creole people Jazz musicians from New Orleans Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans Singers from Louisiana American male jazz musicians