Meet Jon Batiste, new Grammy winner with lots occurring

Jon Batiste wears so many hats he might have a closet for all of them — recording artist, bandleader, musical director, movie composer, museum inventive director and scion of New Orleans musical royalty. The multi-instrumentalist gained 5 Grammys on Sunday and regardless of being on TV all week, not many individuals might know absolutely.

HE’S GOT ‘SOUL’

Batiste composed music, consulted on and organized songs for Pixar’s animated movie “Soul,” a mid-life disaster film combined with a New York jazz fantasia and a body-swap comedy. He gained a Golden Globe for the music alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of 9 Inch Nails; and the trio additionally earned the Academy Award for greatest unique rating. For his or her work on “Soul,” Batiste, Reznor and Ross gained the Grammy on Sunday for greatest rating soundtrack f or visible media.

AT THE PIANO NIGHTLY

Batiste has toured globally together with his band Keep Human and made a memorable cease at Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” in 2014. When producers of “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert” have been contemplating having a home band the next 12 months, Batiste and Keep Human have been a pure match. The mutual respect Colbert and Batiste share is apparent. The bandleader typically cheers the comic’s nightly monologue from the piano, seems in segments and accompanies the musical friends. Batiste caught with the gig even through the pandemic, developing with tunes, each unique and covers, on the spot.

MAKING SWEET MUSIC

Recording since he was an adolescent, Batiste’s albums embody “Hollywood Africans,” produced by T Bone Burnett, “Anatomy of Angels: Dwell on the Village Vanguard,” and “Meditations,” a collaboration with guitarist Cory Wong. His album “Social Music” spent over a month atop the Billboard and iTunes jazz charts, and he additionally put collectively the pandemic profit album, “Aid: A Profit for the Jazz Basis of America’s Musicians Aid Fund.” His eighth album and the Grammy breakthrough was 2021’s “We Are,” a sonic blow-out mixing R&B, jazz, hip-hop, marching bands and rock, generally in the identical music. He earned nods in such varied classes as R&B, jazz, American roots, classical, music video and album of the 12 months. Batiste’s “American Symphony” is ready to premiere at Carnegie Corridor in Might.

THE BIG EASY

Batiste was born into a protracted lineage of New Orleans musicians, which incorporates the Batiste Brothers Band and brass band legends Milton and “Uncle” Lionel Batiste. He performed drums as a toddler earlier than switching to piano at age 11. He’s a graduate of New Orleans Middle for Artistic Arts and the distinguished The Juilliard College. The music and tradition of New Orleans are highlighted in Batiste’s “Freedom” video, which options the band from St. Augustine Excessive College, which Batiste attended, marching by the town’s streets. “Jon Batiste has been an amazing ambassador for Louisiana, as an entertainer and as somebody who really cares in regards to the individuals of our nice state,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards stated Monday.

SIDE HUSTLES

Batiste grew to become the primary musical director for The Atlantic journal in 2017 and is co-creative director of the Nationwide Jazz Museum in Harlem. He has been featured in advert campaigns for Chase, Apple, Lincoln and quite a few style manufacturers together with Ralph Lauren, Barney’s, Nordstrom and H&M. His music “Freedom” has been showcased throughout the NCAA Match and served because the face of New Orleans forward of Saturday night time’s Last 4 on the Caesars Superdome. He additionally had a job in Spike Lee’s 2012 movie “Pink Hook Summer time” and appeared as himself on the HBO tv sequence “Treme.” Batiste is actually the poster boy for the upcoming New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Pageant.