Jon Batiste on a Lifetime of Musical Alchemy

jon batiste has no interest in fitting neatly into categories. The lifelong musician instead is engaged in what he calls a broader “humanist” project— to be as multifaceted and expressive a creator as possible, be that as a recording artist, an Oscar-winning film composer, or a bandleader for The Late

Show With Stephen Colbert. Born into a New Orleans musical institution, Batiste began performing in the Batiste Brothers Band at age 8 and later juggled studying jazz at Juilliard and touring with his band, Stay Human. Their 2014 performance on The Colbert Report earned them the gig as the Late Show house band before Batiste had even turned 30. His eighth album, 2021’s We Are, is a document of virtuosity blending R&B, jazz, hip-hop, and rock, sometimes in the same song. The risk paid off: He is nominated for 11 Grammys, a near record. A more personal win is his history-making number of nominations across fields in a single year, appearing in the R&B, American Roots, Classical, Music Video, and general categories for We Are, along with Jazz and Visual Media for his soundtrack to Pixar’s Soul. He welcomes the hard-won attention while keeping his focus on craft, just as he would if the accolades had never arrived.

Quickest song to make on We Are

➽ “Movement 11’ ” was made in the length of time that it took for me to play it. The first take on the song feels like you’re communicating something beyond comprehension. Composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, Bach— three of my favorites— there’s so many stories of them improvising movements or impromptus or fantasies, where they would create something on the spot and then go back and refine it by putting it onto a score. That’s what I did with this piece: I channeled the feeling of the moment in streams of consciousness that come on the piano.

Song that sounds like New Orleans

➽ “Boy Hood” speaks to my upbringing in detail. Its collaborators, Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton, were there in New Orleans with me. PJ’s verse talks about his experience growing up there, as does mine; Troy plays his solo and you hear what his experience was being

3, 4 years old, marching in parades and second lines. Even the production and the beat—we borrowed from the sounds of New Orleans hiphop and all that stuff that we grew up listening to, whether it was the Hot Boys and Cash Money or No Limit with Master P and the crew. Troy and PJ didn’t need to be in the room with me to get it. We lived it.

Album that foretold his artistic vision

➽ 2013’s Social Music (with Stay Human) is an amazing thing to have captured for me as an artist at that time because it’s really

We Are 1.0. It speaks to all of the same themes that have since only become more and more political and divisive but are really rooted in humanism. This ability to blend all of the genres acts as an allegory for how human beings can coexist on this planet. Social

Music predates

We Are almost by ten years, but it was the beginning of refining that vision.

Most political song

➽ “Tell the Truth” is so, so powerful in the sense of it being a mandate from my parents—my dad in particular—when I left New Orleans for New York. “Tell the truth” is the mandate that I would give to everybody in a position of power. The things that we march about, we just want transparency. Everybody wants to know what’s what and not be manipulated. There’s a very, very political message in “Cry” as well.

It’s even political, as a Black artist, to be nominated in American Roots for this song. At the end, the lyric says,

“For the struggle of the immigrants /

For the wrongful imprisonment /

For the loss of our innocence.”

Best song from Soul to introduce someone to jazz

➽ I try to make everything that I do one piece unto itself, and everything that exists within that piece is essential to it.

But “Bigger Than Us” is really special because it shows you the magic of jazz. And “Looking at Life” shows you the childlike element of what jazz can be. The innocence of it gets lost when we think about jazz ’cause it has such a sensual, intellectual quality to it and it’s grown-folk music. And you think, Wow, I have to live some life to get it. But a lot of the things that I make when I think about jazz have the element of purity—as if you’re a child or a new soul being introduced to life.

Most meaningful Grammy nomination

➽ Of course I believe in albums and in artists being presented in the fullness of who they are and not being marginalized because maybe they identify differently. All of those things are irrelevant when it comes to making music and art. So I love the general categories. I’m very proud of Album of the Year because it’s not about “He’s this guy who makes R&B or classical music or jazz” or whatever. It’s “He made this body of expression, and we believe that it’s worth being recognized.”

Being nominated in Classical is also meaningful and humbling because you don’t have people like me in that space. I did go to Juilliard, and I did represent classical music, in particular, as a huge part of my development and upbringing. But I never saw folks like me, so it’s cool to now be that person in that space for people to see.