Jon Batiste is an American singer who also serves as a musician, television personality, songwriter, and bandleader. Jon has performed with several artists from different genres of music like Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder, Roy Hargrove, Lenny Kravitz, etc. The singer also bagged a lot of awards, and his albums became too famous.
Do you want to have a look at Jon’s background?
Your favorite singer was born on 11th November 1986 in Metairie, Louisiana, in the United States. He belongs to the New Orleans musical dynasty, which includes Milton Batiste of the Olympia Brass Band, Lionel Batiste of the Treme Brass Band, etc. Jon began to play drums at the age of 8. He also transcribed songs from video games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy VII, Street Fighter Alpha, etc. His debut album Times in New Orleans was released when Jon was 17. He gained a bachelor’s degree in music from the Julliard School. Jon also earned a master’s degree in music in 2011. While at school, Jon released his second album, Live in New York: At the Rubin Museum of Art.
How is Jon Batiste’s career started, and how is his journey?
In 2007, Jon made his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam at the age of 20, creating and performing his show. Jon showed music health centres, classes, and workshops in the Netherlands in inner-city schools and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Jon was invited to Carnegie Hall to produce and perform in his show with six fledgling musicians from the Netherlands.
In the succeeding years, Jon released several music schemes, including Social Music in 2013, which spent more than a month at the top of the Billboard and iTunes jazz graphs, and a holiday album Christmas with Jon Batiste in 2016. In 2017, the singer came up with the singles Ohio with Gary Clark Jr. and Leon Bridges, as well as Battle Hymn of the Republic for The Atlantic.
His prominent career concerts include an honor to Chuck Berry and Fats Domino during the 60th annual Grammy Awards performing along with Gary Clark Jr., the Kennedy Center Honors’ acknowledgment to Carmen De Lavallade; the National Anthem at the 2017 NBA All-Star Game; the Concert for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama; and Opening Night of the 2017 U.S. Open.
How did he serve on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert?
In 2015, it was declared that Jon Batiste and Stay Human would aid as the house band on the show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The show premiered on CBS on 8th September 2015. On the show, Jon and Stay Human have performed along with Will Smith, Billy Joel, Wynton Marsalis, Grace VanderWaal, John Legend, and Nas.
How is he doing in recent times?
In June 2020, Jon took part in the Juneteenth celebration in Brooklyn, New York, with a day of complaints, marches, meetings, and vigils to party, show unity and fight for equal rights and conduct of Black people. The 2020 Juneteenth took place during the objections ensuing the slaughter of George Floyd, as well as the COVID-19 situation, witnessed by some as linked to an increase in consciousness of ethnic injustice.
When interrogated as to the alterations he sees in the present crusade for change and it is joining to music, Jon replied by saying that music has always been somewhat that has had all of the different resolutions of our life and our public and our healing and our tacit pain – and the broadcast of messages and the raising consciousness of an ailment of a people.
From where does he get the influence in music?
Jon mentions among the artists who have most prejudiced his artistic and musical selections are James Brown, Mahalia Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, and Django Reinhardt. Batiste explained the significance of jazz music in an interview with Forbes.
Want to know about Jon’s philanthropy works?
Jon was born into a family vigorous in the fight against racial apartheid in the United States; his grandfather David Gauthier was the leader of the Louisiana Postal Workers Union, intricate in the 1968 labour strike sponsored by the Memphis, Tennessee, Department of Public Works for higher pay and safer working circumstances.
The singer is a follower of public rights and the fight against discrimination, contributing publicly to many protests, including the marches endorsed by the Black Lives Matter movement. Succeeding the murder of George Floyd in June 2020, Jon organized nonviolent protests in New York City against police cruelty in the United States. Through the single We Are, Jon supports the Equal Justice Initiative of advocate and activist Bryan Stevenson. Jon is also among the guarantors of numerous initiatives, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Innocence Project, and The Legacy Museum.
What has he achieved in his career till now?
Jon has earned numerous awards, including being placed in the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 music list and being termed Grand Marshal of the Endymion Parade in New Orleans in 2018.Jon has been awarded the American Jazz Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, the Harry Chapin ASCAP Humanitarian Award, and the Movado Future Legend Award. In 2017, Jon gained a titular degree from Salve Regina University for his musical attainments and charities for Newport’s 2014 International Jazz Day. In 2018,
Jon was designated for a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance for Saint James Infirmary Blues. In 2020, Jon gained two Grammy nominations for his album Chronology of a Dream. His album Live at the Village Vanguard was nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, and Meditations was designated for Best New Age Album. In 2020, Jon, along with Nine Inch Nails band associates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, collected the score for the Pixar and Disney animated movie Soul. The three went on to win the Critics’ Choice Award, the Golden Globe, the BAFTA Award, and the Academy Award. Jon’s Oscar win made him only the second black creator to win an award in the category. In 2022, Jon won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.