48 Fun Facts About Jon Batiste

Jon Batiste was born in Metairie and raised in Kenner, both in which state?

Louisiana runs deep in the family: he was performing in the Batiste Brothers Band as a small boy, part of a dynasty going back generations in New Orleans.

Batiste led the house band for which talk-show host from 2015 to 2022?

Stephen Colbert first booked him as a guest in 2014, when Batiste got the host and the audience dancing and then led the music out into the street.

The name of Batiste's band Stay Human refers to the power of live music to counter what?

A disconnected modern society is what the name pushes against: Batiste believes people sharing a live performance can lift each other up.

Batiste won an Academy Award for co-composing the score of which 2020 Pixar film?

Soul features his original jazz compositions, written while he was also leading a nightly TV band and sketching out his next album.

Batiste's We Are took which of the four top Grammy prizes in 2022?

Album of the Year went to him over records by Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, the first win by a Black artist in 14 years.

Which two composers shared a 2021 Best Original Score Oscar with Batiste?

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails wrote the film's electronic score, leaving the jazz to Batiste.

Batiste often roams through the crowd playing which small keyboard instrument, nicknamed his 'harmonaboard'?

Melodica: it is blown through a mouthpiece while the keys are played, which lets him leave the piano and lead the band out among the audience.

At which conservatory did Batiste earn both his bachelor's and master's degrees in jazz studies?

Juilliard later named him one of its first Creative Associates, and in 2022 the former student joined the school's board.

Before switching to piano at 11, Batiste played what in his family's Batiste Brothers Band?

Drums came first; after the switch he took classical piano lessons every Saturday until he left school.

Batiste sharpened his piano skills as a boy by transcribing music from what?

Video games such as Street Fighter Alpha and Sonic the Hedgehog supplied the tunes he worked out by ear and wrote down.

Batiste co-wrote and co-produced 'Ameriican Requiem', the opening track of which Beyoncé album?

Cowboy Carter opens with it, and Batiste hailed the record as the moment "where we dismantle the genre machine".

Batiste attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts alongside which future star?

Trombone Shorty was his schoolmate, and in 2025 both were on the pregame bill when the Super Bowl came to their home city.

Which New Orleans-born trumpeter grew up in Kenner, the same suburb as Batiste?

Wynton Marsalis, like Batiste the product of a musical dynasty, later shared a Jazz at Lincoln Center bill with his younger neighbour.

Batiste made his debut at which famous Amsterdam venue in 2007, aged 20?

The Concertgebouw date was a show he produced himself, alongside music clinics he ran in Dutch inner-city schools.

Stay Human's 2011 album MY N.Y. was recorded where?

On New York City Subway trains, an idea that grew out of late-night diner talks about how the band could connect with people.

What does Batiste call the impromptu street performances his band leads?

Love riots began by accident, when the band played in the street after a sandwich stop and passers-by started to follow them.

What was the title of the 2013 album Batiste recorded with his band Stay Human?

Social Music is also his name for what he does, playing built to bring people together "in the spirit of community".

Batiste's 2018 solo debut for Verve, with 'Don't Stop' as lead single, was called what?

Hollywood Africans followed a summer of American festival dates on which he was backed by the Dap-Kings.

Batiste's cover of which traditional song earned a 2019 Grammy nomination?

St. James Infirmary Blues was up for Best American Roots Performance, an award that went to Brandi Carlile's The Joke.

Batiste appeared as himself in several episodes of which HBO drama?

Treme follows New Orleans musicians after Hurricane Katrina, and its soundtrack also used the brass band of his relative Lionel Batiste.

Batiste's single 'We Are' features the Marching 100 of which New Orleans institution, his alma mater?

St. Augustine High School opened in 1951 to educate Black boys, and Batiste calls it "a cornerstone in our community".

Where did Batiste set up a makeshift studio to begin recording We Are in 2019?

In his dressing room at the Ed Sullivan Theater, because his nightly television job left so little time that collaborators dropped in around the clock.

Who wrote the liner notes for Batiste's album We Are?

Quincy Jones is one of several mentors on the record, each of them, Batiste said, "instrumental in me becoming who I am today".

Batiste's 2021 live EP, released exclusively on Spotify, was recorded in one day at which studio?

Electric Lady Studios was founded by Jimi Hendrix, who died less than three weeks after its opening party in 1970.

In October 2021 Batiste joined which pop star for a surprise night-time street singalong in Harlem?

Madonna led the 2 a.m. parade with him, singing Like a Prayer on the way to a church door, to celebrate the release of her concert film Madame X.

Batiste premiered his American Symphony in September 2022 at which venue?

Carnegie Hall got the work he wrote as his next move after five Grammys, an Oscar and quitting his late-night bandleader job.

Which couple served as executive producers of the Batiste documentary American Symphony?

Barack and Michelle Obama came aboard through their company Higher Ground, which acquired the film with Netflix after its Telluride premiere.

American Symphony follows Batiste's year while his wife battles a recurrence of which illness?

Leukemia had come back after a decade, and the couple married the day before she went into hospital for a bone-marrow transplant.

Who directed American Symphony, the documentary about Batiste and his wife?

Matthew Heineman also shot and edited the film himself, following the couple through a single year.

Batiste's 2023 concept album featuring Lil Wayne, NewJeans and Kenny G was titled what?

World Music Radio is framed as a broadcast by Billy Bob, an interstellar being who beams Earth's music out into the cosmos.

Batiste sang the national anthem at Super Bowl LIX in February 2025 alongside whom?

A deaf actress signing in ASL, Stephanie Nogueras, shared the anthem with him in his home city and signed America the Beautiful as well.

Batiste's 2025 record Big Money won which Grammy in 2026?

Best Americana Album was new ground for a jazz-trained pianist, who had billed the rootsy record as an "Americana blues statement".

Batiste played which musician in Jason Reitman's 2024 film Saturday Night, and also composed its score?

Billy Preston was a musical guest on the very first broadcast in October 1975, the chaotic night the film recreates.

Batiste's 'Dusklight Movement' on Beethoven Blues draws on the 'Moonlight' Sonata and which blues song?

B.B. King's 'The Thrill Is Gone' fits because Batiste hears the blues in Beethoven, whose music he calls "so very African".

Batiste took on an artistic director's role at which jazz museum?

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem has worked with him since 2008, when he helped create talks that walked audiences through the theory and history of jazz.

Batiste's grandfather David Gauthier was a state union president representing which profession?

Postal employees had him as their state union president, and he led rallies for their rights at the time of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.

Who took over as bandleader on The Late Show when Batiste left in 2022?

Louis Cato had been filling in as interim bandleader that summer, and the group dropped the Stay Human name when he took over for good.

Batiste's first Late Show in 2015 closed with an all-star jam on which Sly and the Family Stone classic?

Everyday People brought Mavis Staples and Buddy Guy on stage with the house band, and the new host joined in himself to end his first night.

Batiste and Stay Human played a rally at the Washington Monument in April 2017 for which cause?

The March for Science used Batiste and Stay Human as its house band on Earth Day, with Questlove co-hosting from the main stage.

Batiste and his wife, author Suleika Jaouad, first met as teenagers where?

At band camp, though they married only in 2022, in secret, the day before she went into hospital for a bone-marrow transplant.

Batiste played T.K. Hazelton and wrote the Hammond organ music for which Spike Lee film?

Red Hook Summer cast him as the organist of a Brooklyn church, so he works twice over: on screen at the keys and off screen as writer of the film's organ music.

Which singer put a track called 'Jon Batiste Interlude' on her 2023 album?

Lana Del Rey gave him an interlude of his own on her record, and later that year she turned up as a guest on his.

Batiste's 2021 Oscar made him the second Black composer to win Best Original Score, after whom?

Herbie Hancock won in 1987 for Round Midnight, two years after Prince took a separate Oscar for the song score of Purple Rain.

In 2018 Batiste was named Grand Marshal of which New Orleans Carnival parade?

Endymion, one of Carnival's three super krewes, put him at the head of its parade in a year when Rod Stewart and Jason Derulo also rode.

Batiste's Grammy-nominated 2020 album Meditations was made with which guitarist?

Cory Wong improvised the album with him, and it earned its nomination as a new age record, not a jazz one.

Batiste's 2025 album Big Money features Andra Day, No I.D. and which veteran songwriter?

Randy Newman duets with him on Lonely Avenue, after Batiste persuaded the veteran songwriter to sing again.

Which single from We Are won Batiste the 2022 Grammy for Best Music Video?

Freedom took the video prize, while Cry, another option here, won both American Roots awards the same night.

Batiste's Grammy-nominated live album Chronology of a Dream was recorded at which jazz club?

Village Vanguard, which opened in 1935 as a home for folk music and poetry, gave him two live albums, Chronology of a Dream and Anatomy of Angels.