Jon Batiste speaks with the fluidity with which he performs, by no means straying too removed from pleasure. The American musician and composer talks about his first-ever journey to India this November with unguarded pleasure.
“India is singular,” he says. “The culture is very much one where there’s a deep authenticity, truth and beauty. It reminds me of a quality that I grew up with in New Orleans, Louisiana. From the music to the food to the architecture to the dancing. It really is almost like you’re going from through a portal into a new world.”
For the multi-Grammy-winning musician, whose profession has carried him from Juilliard to the Academy Awards, India additionally represents a return to an previous reminiscence. “I’ve never really shared this story, but everyone who knows me and my family is aware of this. One of my father’s friends and our neighbour was born in India. He moved to Louisiana. And he would always share with us in the community different things about Indian culture. One time, when I was about seven or eight years old, he had a tabla there. He wasn’t a musician, but he would still play, or he would have other people come in to play. That’s something I’ve always appreciated while growing up.”
Cross-border collaboration
It’s not shocking that an publicity to Indian music was someplace in his basis. He has at all times appeared outward, listening throughout traditions. When requested about influences, he reels off acquainted names like the late Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ravi Shankar, and then provides, “There’s a musician, his name is Lydian.” He’s referring to Lydian Nadhaswaram, the 20-year-old Tamilian pianist from Chennai who shot to international consideration as a baby prodigy, successful The World’s Best expertise present in 2019 with dazzling feats of pace and dexterity at the keyboard. “I’ve been in touch with him and I’ve listened to his music. I’m excited to figure out different musicians; maybe I can collaborate with him and others.”
Collaboration has been a Jon Batiste throughline. He has labored with virtually each influential identify below the solar, together with Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, ASAP Rocky, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Roy Hargrove, Juvenile, and Mavis Staples, to call just a few. “Everybody is different. I learn from everyone whom I get to collaborate with,” he says. “The way that you make a collaboration great is by doing something that’s authentic within you that brings out the best in another person. And then they’re doing something authentic within them that brings out a side of you. You both create something that you wouldn’t have if you were by yourself.”
Jon Batiste
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
That spirit carried him into certainly one of his most acclaimed tasks that gained him an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and one more Grammy — Pixar’s Soul, the place he shared composing duties with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The distinction between the Nine Inch Nails legends’ ambient electronics and his free-flowing jazz couldn’t have been sharper, but it surely labored superbly. “It was just about serving the story,” Jon recollects. “We had the story as the foundation. Sometimes those worlds would blend where spirits and souls from The Great Beyond (the realm of the afterlife in Soul) would be on Earth. We discovered even better ways to do it, but you always have to start with some sort of structure with collaboration so that people know what to bring to the party.”
Beethoven and past
Jon has additionally been reframing the canon along with his 2024 venture Beethoven Blues. “It’s of the highest musical and human achievements,” he says of Beethoven’s music. “But if we frame it in one way all the time as European music, or as music that is only meant for a certain type of performance in a certain environment, then we’re not seeing the fullness of it. Greatness becomes. The more singular something is, the more it becomes universal for all. And that’s what’s beautiful about discovering. If you’re listening to Beethoven one way and discovering how African it is, it teaches you about the greatness of African music and rhythm and the connection of that to all music.”
When pressed on fantasy collaborations, he veers instinctively to legendary jazz pianist Duke Ellington. “Maybe to see Duke perform with Michael Jackson.”
Playful roots
The extra severe the topic, the extra possible Jon is to stability it with play. He speaks with equal fondness about his early days transcribing online game soundtracks like Street Fighter and Final Fantasy, and says he nonetheless finds time to sport. “All the time, I was just gaming yesterday,” he says, nearly mischievously. “Sometimes you got to play the scores. I recorded moments from Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog on my album.”
When requested about jazz on display screen, his picks are eclectic. “I really like Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues. I like the way that they incorporated the music into Birdman. I also like the different documentaries [on jazz]. There’s a documentary on Thelonius Monk called Straight, No Chaser. I used to watch it ALL THE TIME.”
Jon Batiste
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
What ties all of it collectively — New Orleans, gospel, Juilliard, videogames, Beethoven, India — is the conviction that music is a language that cuts deeper. His solutions are threaded with that concept, that the whole lot harmonises as a result of all of it lives inside him. “They always harmonise because it’s the genre of Jon Batiste,” he says. “Everything connects because it’s all within me.”
Before the dialog ends, he jots down a suggestion I supplied to him: a particular Japanese anime about jazz referred to as Blue Giant. He appears genuinely delighted. “Blue Giant. Yeah, I’ll check it out.”
Jon Batiste will carry out dwell at the Plenary Hall in Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam on November 24, and in Mumbai on November 26. The concert events have been produced and promoted by BookMyShow Live
Published – October 01, 2025 07:33 pm IST
