Arts & Culture

Jon Batiste: Changing Music Forever and Grabbing Plenty of Grammys in the Process

24 January 202224 January 2022By
Jon Batiste: Changing Music Forever and Grabbing Plenty of Grammys in the Process

With 11 nominations, Jon Batiste has received the most Grammy nominations this year. But who is he and why is he hitting all the right notes?

There are many familiar faces amid this year’s Grammy nominees. However, the person who has taken the Grammys by storm may be unknown to some. Jon Batiste has scooped up 11 nominations, the most one artist has received this year. Music from three of his albums have been nominated. Those albums being We Are, Soul (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Jazz Selections: Music From And Inspired By Soul.  Not only that, he is the first person to receive nominations that span over seven categories. From, the General Field, R&B, Jazz, American Roots Music, Music For Visual Media, to Classical, and Music Video/Film.

Batiste is reinventing the music scene – smashing down the trappings of genre walls.  In an interview with Variety he highlights how these nominations show that “we’re moving closer to the truth of what music is really all about. It’s not separations. Music is about bringing people together”.

We Are

We Are is Batiste’s eighth studio album. It has been described by Variety, as “a jumble of New Orleans-based gospel, soul and rock ‘n’ roll, spliced into tales of family, justice and Black pride”. The album has been nominated for the prestigious record of the year award. Alongside this, his singles Freedom, Cry, I Need You, Bigger Than Us and Batiste: Movement 11’ have been nominated throughout the categories. It is evident that he elegantly swims among the best of every genre. With his music he aims to bring the raw soul of jazz into the 21st century. He seeks inspiration and guidance from legends such as Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington. With We Are his goal was to “to blend that early form of Black social dance music prevalent on the Chitlin Circuit with a contemporary R&B production concept. People get the essence of both, but neither is diluted”.

We Are: A work in progress

Batiste came from a musical family – with many relatives having successful careers in the industry. It would have then come as no surprise when at 17 Batiste left his home and nirvana of jazz, New Orleans, and moved to New York City to study at Julliard.  

While studying he created the band Stay Human and regularly busked on the streets of NYC. The band went from strength to strength, touring the world, and landing a spot as the band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2015. He later found himself composing the music for the Disney Pixar movie Soul, a film in itself that celebrates the beauty and power of jazz. The movie led him to his Oscar and Golden Globe wins in 2021 for best original score. So, award season isn’t unfamiliar territory.

We Are: Making social change

Batiste is also passionate about making social change. He uses his music to bring people together and bring light amid some of the darkest times. His music acts as a form of protest for people to take the mic – both literally and metaphorically and fight against the injustices around them. He told The Guardian, “When George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were killed, Black people started to feel like our value as human beings was being stripped away – and we needed to speak to that in our own way, through music.”

It is his passion for change that brings him into a sphere that goes beyond music and into the realms of those who used their talent as a tool to evoke change, following the likes of Nina Simone and Sam Cooke.

We Are: Excited for what comes next

So far Jon Batiste has paved a colourful, inspirational and soulful musical path, showing the power of not just music but of the eternal beauty of jazz. He has intertwined genres and created a new tapestry of what music can be. To top it all off he has even made it onto Barack Obama’s iconic 2021 playlist. We will be blown away a hundred more times in the future by the boy from New Orleans. As he has said, these Grammy nominations are “a triumph before the next great test.”

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