Parachute Express is a band of three California-based entertainers who perform, write and produce music for children. Members are Stephen Michael Schwartz, Janice Hubbard and Donny Becker. Parachute Express gained national prominence as recording artists for Gymboree Play & Music, Walt Disney Records, and Trio Lane Records. They sing the theme song to the popular television series Jay Jay The Jet Plane and have been seen on TV shows Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. Rocks and Disney's Kaleidoscope Concerts. Their music is featured in over 550 Gymboree franchises throughout the world, as well as in preschools, daycare centers and diverse informal education programs.
Parachute Express created a total of twelve albums to date, selling over half a million units (figure for 2004). In the early 1990s Parachute Express recorded for Walt Disney Records under the Music Box Artist Series. Since 1998 the trio has its own label, Trio Lane Records. Many of their albums have won national awards including NAPPA awards, the Film Advisory Board Award, an Indie Award, a Toy of The Year Award, and several times the Parents' Choice Gold Award.
Their video Come Sing With Us! won the Parents Choice Video Award and an International Monitor Award. They have been voted "Best Group" by the American Academy of Children's Entertainment. Their long list of honors further includes featured performers at the 42nd and 43rd Presidential Inaugural Festivities, performing their "poetic anthem" We The Children. This song was included in the Presidential library by then First Lady Hillary Clinton. They performed half a dozen times at the Annual Easter Egg Hunt on the lawn of the White House and continue to perform to date. In 2010 and 2011 Parachute Express toured China, performing in Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
In 1984, Donny was James "Gymbo" the Clown in the video, "Gymboree: Play with a Purpose".
Famous quotes containing the words parachute and/or express:
“I did not just fall in love. I made a parachute jump.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Our family talked a lot at table, and only two subjects were taboo: politics and personal troubles. The first was sternly avoided because Father ran a nonpartisan daily in a small town, with some success, and did not wish to express his own opinions in public, even when in private.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)