In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a music memory from Jeff Campbell, founder of Hungry for Music, a nonprofit organization distributes musical instruments to children in need.
Jeff, originally from Shreveport, established Hungry for Music in 1994 in Washington D.C. Since then, the nonprofit has donated over 8,000 instruments to children in 27 states and 14 countries.
Jeff was ten years old in 1972 when he attended his first concert—the Jackson 5. And while the music was powerful, the experience was made more so by a connection he forged with a woman in the audience.
Jeff shares the memory: “My first concert was the Jackson 5 at Hirsch Coliseum in Shreveport. I remember…a black woman had the same ticket as me. So she said, ‘You can sit in my lap.’ She offered me gum, and it was just very nice. And knowing what I know about the racial division there, that was something very powerful. It had a really powerful effect on me. Not only the music, but the gesture she made toward me that has an impact today.”
New Orleans kids’ choir director launches Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for a children’s book and song called “Candy Land Ball”
What:Candy Land Ball, a children’s book (36 pages) about a magical night at the ball, written in rhyming verse and beautifully illustrated by watercolor artist Emanuela Serafina. It comes with piano sheet music and a download code for the song performed by Katy Hobgood Ray & the Confetti Park Players. The book is being pre-sold book on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to cover production and printing costs. The author’s goal is to raise $3000 in pre-sales.
When: The crowdfunding campaign runs from September 25-November 24, 2016. Autographed books and CDs and other perks will be shipped to supporters in the first week of December 2016.
Where: Four special packages are available for sale at https://igg.me/at/candylandball/x/11554329. Packages range from $15-$100, and include perks such as autographed books, CDs, musical toys, and gourmet candy gift baskets.
Why: The Candy Land Ball story book is the follow-up to the recorded song from the Parents’ Choice® Award-winning children’s music album, We’re Going to Confetti Park!featuring Katy Hobgood Ray & the Confetti Park Players. The story was inspired by an annual event that raises funds for parks and children’s programming in Algiers Point for 501(c)3 Confetti Kids, Inc. A portion of proceeds from the campaign will go to Confetti Kids, Inc., an organization for which Katy has volunteered for four years. This is the second children’s book from Confetti Park. The first, The Little Mouse Santi, was named a Best Book of 2015 by Kirkus Reviews and won a Moonbeam Award and Gold Mom’s Choice Award.
Learn more at confettipark.com. Media members, please email for inquiries or call 504-650-1238.
It’s a music memory brought to you by Confetti Park!
Jimmy Caskey lives in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he and his wife Jacques own and operate a beloved lunchtime restaurant called Jacquelyn’s Cafe. Jimmy has been playing guitar all his life, and has performed in several different bands around north Louisiana.
Whenever people go to Jacquelyn’s Cafe, in addition to enjoying the shrimp salad and Monte Cristo sandwiches, bowls of gumbo and red beans and rice, they’re getting a musical education (whether they know it or not!). Jim Caskey is the deejay, and he lovingly shares his large and eclectic recording collection with everyone who steps through the doors. He will talk music with anyone who is interested in learning about what they’re hearing.
Jimmy’s love for music is lifelong. In this music memory, Jimmy discusses discovering his parents’ turntable and records when he was small child:
“I was around 5 or 6 in Mississippi, I remember my folks had albums and a turntable. And I remember sitting there listening to the albums and was fascinated by music. And I’ve been fascinated ever since then by recorded music…..And when I was 13 I started playing guitar, and I don’t know why I can’t explain it, but I was always infected and amazed by music of all sorts. Except for heavy metal.”
Thank you, Jimmy, for sharing your childhood music memory with Confetti Park!
Confetti Park is a community radio program out of New Orleans. We feature local storytellers and songs that kids love, songs created for kids, or created by kids, right here in Louisiana. This medley of kids music shows the diversity of Louisiana musicians.
Also featured in this episode, a Louisiana folk tale called The Little Louisiana Pine Tree, a music memory from Shreveport musician Leonard Service, and a poem from Confetti Park Player Hrilina Ramrakhiani.
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!
Confetti Park is a community radio program out of New Orleans. We feature local storytellers and songs that kids love, songs created for kids, or created by kids, right here in Louisiana. This medley of kids music shows the diversity of Louisiana musicians.
Also featured in this episode, a Louisiana folk tale called The Little Louisiana Pine Tree, a music memory from Shreveport musician Leonard Service, and a poem from Confetti Park Player Hrilina Ramrakhiani.
The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!
It’s a childhood music memory from Rich Collins, a founder and front man for one of the most popular children’s music groups in the world, theImagination Movers. Rich also has a burgeoning solo career, with a new album of songs geared toward adults. (Scroll down for music videos!)
In this music memory, Rich talks about the music he associates with large family gatherings at Thanksgiving:
“My family up in DC was large and we would all gather for all the major holidays, and the holiday that was at our house every year was Thanksgiving. And we had a very fun family, so basically the way every one of these gatherings ended was with all the tables and chairs being pushed aside, and we would put on records and start dancing.”
Rich talks about how his father curated the albums that became the basis for Thanksgiving memories: “The soundtrack to my youth, and to these parties, and to these great family memories, was the Beatles, Creedence, and Otis Redding.”
Today, the tradition lives on for Rich and his family.
“Every other year here in New Orleans (where I’ve been for 25 years), I host Thanksgiving. And I have a Pandora channel with those three artists on it and I put it on and it’s playing the whole time that I’m gathered with my sisters and my mom and the next generation…”
Thanks, Rich, for sharing this wonderful family tradition with Confetti Park. Listen to this extended interview with Rich Collins, all about the music of the Imagination Movers.
It’s Confetti Park Storytime! In this episode, we hear Louisiana-born big band leader and children’s author Leif Pedersen narrate The Missing Chord, the very first book of the Swamp Kids series.
The Swamp Kids are friends and bandmates who live in Bayou Bleu near Mamou, Louisiana. Led by Pierre a le Gator on fiddle, the musical swamp kids include Mon Cher the pretty raccoon and TuTu the Turtle on washboard. There’s also a fish who keeps time by splashing his tail in the water.
But they just can’t get their sounds quite right! What’s missing? Will they find it before the big Battle of the Bands contest?
Sachet the Crawfish longs to join in the merry music making, but he wants to bring just the right sound to the group. Maybe he has just what the Swamp Kids need!
Swamp Kids’ creator Leif Pedersen is a fabulous musician in his own right. Leif has been a lead singer for many famous internationally touring Big Bands orchestras, such as Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Al Beletto’s Big Jazz Band, Pete Fountain, and Woody Herman’s Band. Today, the New Orleans native leads his own band.
The Swamp Kids is a growing enterprise, with four books in the series and more coming. All of the books contain “Lagniappe Lessons” by Louisiana celebrities—famous Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw is the guest star in The Lost Chord!
Visit www.theswampkids.com for puzzles, plush toys, activity sheets of teachers, and more!
This podcast features a bit of “Se Pas La Pan” performed by the Hackberry Ramblers.
The cover story for this issue is on Dav Pilkey, author of the beloved Adventures of Captain Underpants series, one of the most popular series of books written for elementary-school aged children. There is also a profile on children’s author and illustrator Liz Pichon, creator of the popular Tom Gates series, and on Linda Dennis, founder of the Team Backpack Journalists program.
The article on Katy was written by Melissa Fales.
“As the host and producer of the New Orleans-based Confetti Park children’s radio show and director of the Confetti Park Players children’s chorus, Katy Hobgood Ray pays homage to the music and culture of her beloved home state of Louisiana. Both projects allow Ray to share her vast musical knowledge and songwriting talent with children and adults alike.”
Thank you so much for the wonderful support, to writer Melissa and to Editor-in-Chief, Cristy Bertini!
Story Monsters Ink is a free, subscription-based magazine that gives parents and educators the latest news about award-winning and debut books, profiles on both renowned and newly published authors, upcoming book events, author presentations and more.
Saxophonist John Doheny at a Confetti Park recording session with Chuck Bee (L) and Roger Lewis (R).
In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a childhood music memory from New Orleans-based saxophonist John Doheny.
John has a long career as a professional jazz musician, band leader, writer, and educator. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he first started playing clarinet as a child and was part of youth orchestras from an early age.
John switched to saxophone as a teenager, and says he developed his chops playing six nights a week as a college student in Vancouver. He spent his twenties and thirties playing and recording with a slate of well-known pop and rhythm and blues artists such as the Coasters, the Platters, Bobby Curtola, Buddy Knox, the Temptations, Solomon Burke, Michael Buble, and Doug and the Slugs.
In 2003, John moved to New Orleans and enrolled in the graduate school at Tulane University. In addition to earning an MA in Musicology (with a concentration in Early New Orleans Jazz), he served as Professor of Practice in the music department and directed the student jazz band. He also served as band leader of the Professors of Pleasure, and has released several straight-ahead jazz recordings. (We are honored that John appears on a track with the Confetti Park Players—The Clapping Song.)
In this memory, John recalls how his mother made him practice every day, and how it led to a favorite jam.
“My mother said you have to practice for 30 minutes after school or no cartoons. And so I would be sitting there playing with the Klose book, and then the cartoons would come on, and then because I already had the horn in my hand, I taught myself how to play the Bugs Bunny theme song. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was teaching myself how to play what I hear, which is kind of what you want to do.”
The Confetti Park Players are a children’s chorus based here in New Orleans. One of our favorite things to do is to collaborate with other musicians who live in this amazing, creative city! We are SO lucky to be surrounded by and nurtured by so much talent.
Our most recent collaboration was with local folk-pop duo Ginger & the Bee (aka Sherri Montz and Scott Frilot). This duo perform around New Orleans and have other musical projects, including the beloved Vinyl Girls, Slack Adjustor, Skin & Bones, and the Tomatoes.
Ginger & the Bee wrote a song specially for the Confetti Park Players—it’s called “Bumblebee.”
Bumblebee, bumblebee, where is your honey? I want some honey for my honey!
Bumblebee, bumblebee, where is your honey? I want some honey for me.
Choir director Katy Ray taught the song to the kids over a few weeks, and one special Wednesday night, Ginger & the Bee came to our practice at Algiers United Methodist Church to record with the kids.
Scott sets up the recording gear for the session.
Lily and Nola do a sound check with Scott. We think he and Sherri enjoyed this as much as the kids!
The Confetti Park Players sing “Bumblebee” with much gusto!
After the recording was over, the kids went outside to play on the grass with Sherri to shoot some playful scenes with scarves.
Scarf attack!
Move back, kids!
Sherri emerges.
A few weeks later, the Confetti Park Players went to the Mini Art Center, a child-centric community arts center located in our very own Algiers Point, to do stop motion animation for the music video. We had such a great time creating this from drawings and recording footage. Molly and Prescott, who run the Mini Art Center, are great teachers.
Prescott gathers the kids around the stop motion center.
The kids draw characters and backgrounds for the music video.
What a fun process! We moved the characters inch by inch for the stop motion animation.
Paul Butler interviews Katy Hobgood Ray on WFDU’s Kids Crossroads
Katy Hobgood Ray spent a lovely hour with Paul Butler of WFDU’s Kids Crossroads and the Imagination Parade (based in the NY/NJ area) talking about the Confetti Park Players, the Confetti Park radio show, and the real park and Louisiana culture which are her inspiration.
Katy loves hosting a radio show for kids down here in Louisiana, which she’s been doing for a year. Paul, meanwhile, has been hosting his shows since 1985!!!!
There is lots of good children’s music to hear in this fun segment, which is archived online. Paul chooses songs from the Confetti Park Players’ CD, We’re Going to Confetti Park!, and pairs them with topical songs by other children’s musicians throughout the United State (and from generations of songwriters). There are songs about watermelons, dancing, peanuts, snoballs, and much more.
Kids variety show and podcast out of New Orleans features locally spun children’s music and stories showcasing the diverse cultures and sounds of Louisiana.
On Sunday, July 17 at 11:30 a.m., a children’s radio show called “Confetti Park” will hit the airwaves of Baton Rouge on WHYR 96.9 FM.
“Confetti Park,” hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray of New Orleans, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. There are skits, poems, clapping songs, interviews, studio performances by local musicians, and a weekly story time. A podcast version of the show is available on iTunes.
“Here in Louisiana, music permeates the fabric of our daily lives and kids integrate naturally with our live music scene,” says Ray. “I hope, through Confetti Park, to showcase the diversity and kid-friendliness of our culture, and also, to show that kids music can be really good. A lot of Louisiana music is naturally kids music—danceable and full of whimsy and fun.”
Katy Hobgood Ray is the host and producer of Confetti Park
An announcement on the WHYR website says: “….We could all use some inspiration, imagination, and fun. Luckily, WHYR-LP welcomes Confetti Park, a half-hour of music, stories, poetry, and more starting Sunday, July 17th. Hear Confetti Park on Baton Rouge Community Radio every Sunday at 11:30am, hosted by Katy Ray of New Orleans, for uniquely Louisianian magic that reminds us how wonderful our state can be.”
Ray, who works in communications at Tulane University in New Orleans, has a master’s degree in musicology from Tulane and is a former content producer and host for Red River Radio, an NPR-affiliated public radio network in north Louisiana. She directs a children’s choir in New Orleans called the Confetti Park Players; they won a Parents’ Choice Approved Award for their first album.
With support from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and Music Rising at Tulane University, Katy traverses the state to unearth music and folktales, local legends and spooky stories, colorful family memories and forgotten histories. For the weekly segment Confetti Park Storytime, she features published children’s authors as well as interviews and encounters with everyday people on the street. Children’s voices are often used to share poems, contemporary jump rope jingles, hand-clapping games and other playground chants.
“Confetti Park” debuted in New Orleans on WHIV in April 2015. It currently airs in Hammond on KSLU and is available to all Louisiana community radio stations.
CONFETTI PARK
Confetti Park is a children’s media workshop in New Orleans. We create books, mobile apps, music, videos, and special events geared toward celebrating and growing the wonder and magic of childhood. For more information, visit https://confettipark.com
In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a music memory from Jeff Campbell, founder of Hungry for Music, a nonprofit organization distributes musical instruments to children in need.
