Just a few months after Jumpin\u2019 Josh Violette took up the guitar at age 8, he took the stage for the first time to play the blues at a Tacoma nightclub.<\/p>\n
Violette, 12, of Des Moines, added the harmonica to his repertoire two years ago. He added the saxophone last year. But the guitar remains his primary instrument.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I\u2019m playing – it\u2019s hard to describe – but it\u2019s an amazing ball of energy I get from the audience,\u201d Violette said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome when magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Violette got the chance to take the stage with acclaimed blues trombonist Randy Oxford four years ago at Jazzbones Restaurant and Nightclub in Tacoma.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had only played for a few months and Randy had a jam and had Josh come up and play with him and he has always since,\u201d said John Violette, Josh\u2019s father.<\/p>\n
Violette regularly plays at a blues open jam session Monday nights at the Fire Creek Grill and Raw Bar, 2019 W. Meeker St., in Kent next to the Riverbend Golf Course.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the future of the blues right there,\u201d Oxford said after Violette performed with him last May.<\/p>\n
A video of Jumpin\u2019 Josh playing with Oxford and other clips of Violette can be viewed at www.youtube.com. Just search for \u201cJumpin\u2019 Josh\u201d to find the videos.<\/p>\n
Violette, an only child, became interested in the blues because that\u2019s the music his father and mother like to hear. They also have taken him to blues festivals since shortly after he was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always been interested since he was a little kid and he would listen to Eric Clapton,\u201d the father of Jumpin\u2019 Josh said. \u201cHe gravitated to the blues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s most of what I heard,\u201d Josh agrees.<\/p>\n
John and Josh decided to take guitar lessons together four years ago at Highline Community College. It didn\u2019t take long to discover that Josh had a natural talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom there it just took off,\u201d his father said.<\/p>\n
Oxford gave Violette his nickname when he saw him at one of his shows at age 2. Violette came up on the stage and jumped around with Oxford.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo then whenever we saw Randy he would ask, \u2018Where\u2019s Jumpin\u2019 Josh?\u2019\u201d John Violette said.<\/p>\n
The name has stuck ever since.<\/p>\n
The 12-year-old plays at clubs and festivals throughout Oregon and Washington. He played with Little Bill (Engelhart) in September at the Blues by the Sea festival at Astoria, Ore. Earlier in the summer he played at The Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland. He has played four years in a row at the Mount Baker Blues Festival in Bellingham.<\/p>\n
If Violette plays at a bar or in a beer garden, he can only be on stage or in the bar as long as he is performing. In some cases, he has had to wait outside in the rain until it\u2019s his turn to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing is you set up all of my stuff,\u201d Josh quipped to his dad.<\/p>\n
Violette, a seventh-grade student at Sacajawea Middle School in Federal Way, also plays guitar in the school jazz band and tenor sax in the regular school band. He excels in the classroom as well with mostly As and a couple of Bs. As long as Violette keeps up the good grades, he can play as much music as he wants, his father said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making an opportunity for him,\u201d John said. \u201cActually, it\u2019s more like I answer the phone for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Violette plays cover songs from Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others. He met King two years ago at a concert at the Tulalip Resort Casino. King autographed Violette\u2019s guitar. The guitar now is filled with autographs of musicians the boy has met.<\/p>\n
When Violette comes home from school, he often starts right up with guitar practice. But he doesn\u2019t consider it a chore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just sit around playing and pick on the guitar for a while,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The teen musician is developing his writing skills as well. When he plays or attends a blues festival, he comes home and writes about the festivals for a newsletter produced by the Federal Way-based South Sound Blues Association.<\/p>\n
But if all continues to go well, Jumpin\u2019 Josh plans to become a professional musician.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be able to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
See live blues<\/p>\n
What: Blues open jam<\/p>\n
When: 7:30-11 p.m. Mondays<\/p>\n
Where: Fire Creek Grill, 2019 W. Meeker St.<\/p>\n
Cost: Free<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just a few months after Jumpin\u2019 Josh Violette took up the guitar at age 8, he took the stage for the first time to play the blues at a Tacoma nightclub.
\nViolette, 12, of Des Moines, added the harmonica to his repertoire two years ago. He added the saxophone last year. But the guitar remains his primary instrument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":23334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23333"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}