The Long & Winding Road
1985: Professionally record my first original song Where's The Fun with the pop/rock band Teddy Girl. Ellen Parker rocking out on vocals.
1986: Join pop band Blind Dates. Yes, that’s vocalist Sean Altman of Rockapella and Carmen Sandiego fame and Tony James, Out of the Box star and multi-talented performer.
1987: Found alt-rock band Broken Piece (later "Beugart”). Is principle songwriter for band
1988: Beugart wins Best Unsigned Band from a local NYC newspaper.
Forbes Magazine below features story on Off Wall Street Jam
1990: Co-found, with Doug Maxwell, the nation's first "weekend warrior" music club in lower Manhattan. Growing to over 800 members, The Off Wall Street Jam is featured in countless media outlets, including the NY Times, Forbes Magazine, NY Magazine and the NY Daily News, and on ABC, NBC, WPIX, WNET and the BBC.
1999: Write, arrange and produce CD: John Allen Watts: Love Ballads. Features gifted vocalists, Lisa Winner (then Lisa Yves) and Laura Berman.
2001: Begin performing Brazilian MPB, bossa nova, samba and jazz standards, with wife, Débora Watts. John and Débora have been performing throughout the tri-state ever since-- in clubs, at private events and in concert at venues including Flushing Town Hall, The Brooklyn Museum and the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown.
2005: Perform the music of G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann, and others, in Armenia at Yerevan's famed Komitas Hall.
2006: Perform the music of G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann at the Naregatsi Insitute, in Yerevan, Armenia.
2007: Perform a three-piano concert (with Cristiano Tiozzo and Stefano Rotolo) of the music of G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann at the great Teatro Nacional in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2009: Produce Débora Watts' first CD: Débora. Available on iTunes, CD baby and Spotify.
2011: Found the John Allen Watts Brazilian Trio, featuring Luiz Ebert on drums and Peter Slavov on acoustic bass. The BASH award-winning trio has been performing ever since at clubs and for private events.
2015: Complete first full-length musical inspired by the film Midnight Cowboy and successfully produced (with Playlight Theatre) two AEA 29-hour readings, one in Astoria, NYC and one on Broadway in Manhattan.
2016: Join the faculty of the Lucy Moses School Summer Musical Theatre Camp for children, composing and musical directing original musicals for children.
2017: Complete and present the full-length musical In Your Company (book and lyrics by Jordyn Coats) for Master's Thesis in Graduate Musical Theatre Writing (NYU's Tisch School for the Arts).
2017: Produce Débora's second and first all-original CD: Um Samba ao Contrario. The CD is selected for TV Globo's People's Choice Awards and the song "Encontros" wins first prize in the U.S.A. International Songwriting Competition in the category of "World Music." Available on iTunes, CD baby and Spotify.
2017: Letters Home from the musical "In Your Company" is selected by ALNM (A Little New Music) for a live concert in LA for emerging theatre writers & composers.
2019: Complete with Jason Huza the musical The Crossing and the Ten Crucial Days-- an historically accurate portrayal of the turning point of the American Revolution. In addition, an AEA 29-hour reading is presented to a packed theatre at Washington Crossing Historic Park, PA, within sight of where the hallowed events depicted took place.
April, 7, 2020: Lawrenceville Hospital, where I had been admitted in Oct, asks me to write an inspiration song for the staff. Together with Alex Syiek (words, vocals), we present the song, Miracle, to the hospital at the peak of the effort to “flatten the curve.”
Spring/summer 2020: Débora and I continue performing, now live-streaming shows from home for Jazz Forum Arts and to raise money for charitable organizations