Jon Batiste Talks ‘Social Music’

The name “Batiste” and music just seems to go together. The roots of the family run deep in New Orleans culture and music.  So deeply, in fact, that the Batiste Family is also one of the influences for HBO’s “Treme.” Jon has appeared as himself several times on the show as have relatives Lionel, Terrell, and Jasmine.  The family name is also represented through the acting talents of Wendell Pierce who plays Antoine Batiste and actress Khandi Alexander who portrays LaDonna Batiste-Williams.

World ambassadors of music, Jon Batiste & Stay Human will release their debut album, Social Music, on Razor & Tie Oct. 15.  The long-player not only represents all of the Julliard School graduate’s musical influences but defies easy categorization and ranges from piano interludes to funk to jazz. 

But if you want an easy identifier, Batiste says the description of his music is in the album’s title.

Does being born into your family pretty much set one’s life journey?

The Batiste family is one of  … the largest musical [families] and its variety of music styles is really deep.  You go from brass band, you have Uncle Lionel Batiste and then you got producers and Milton Batiste [and] Morgan with Sonny & Cher.  You got my dad and the Batiste Brothers which is kind of like funk music, New Orleans soul music.  They were great in [the] ’60s, ’70s with the Nevilles. That’s just the era of music that a lot of people know about. 

My uncle [Russell Batiste], he played in the Meters.  I’m really fortunate to come from such a divergent and rich musical family. That’s kind of informed who I’ve been.  Then moving to New York and being here for 10 years has been a great experience, both of those cultural mixes.

Is there anyone from your family that didn’t go into music?

It’s funny because all of my family isn’t into music but there are so many who are musical in my family and extended family that the perception is that we’re all musicians.  My sister, she didn’t go into music. She went into pharmacy as well as my cousin who was a musician. … There are a few people, I guess you could say “musicians” who retired early and decided to go [with] other paths.  Everybody goes through some sort of musical training or some sort of musical environment – being in a band, sitting in with the family band or going to a lot of shows.

The main character in “Treme” [is portrayed by] a friend of mine, Wendell Pierce, who’s also a fellow Julliard alum.  His character’s name is Antoine Batiste.  That kind of shows a bit of how the heritage and lineage of my family is deeply entrenched in the New Orleans culture.

Isn’t the title of your new album also how you describe your music?

Right.  We wanted to figure out a way to describe the music and not limit it to a specific genre, because it isn’t.  We also didn’t want a super-hyphenated sort of overly descriptive name that really doesn’t do the music justice either, like jazz-rock/hip hop/classical/pop/jazz/acid-jazz, super long and crazy. So we just decided to call the music that we play based upon what its purpose is and the intent.  We want people to react when they hear the music.  That’s what social music is all about. It’s a description as well as the name of the album.

How are people reacting to Social Music?

Whether [people] like this genre or that genre or whatever they like, there is always something in it for them that they respond to.  Because it’s all played in a spirit of inclusiveness. The way we approach live shows is more like we’re approaching some sort of ritual or ceremony where we transform a venue and bring people into the performance and it’s really about an experience. … I’m really fortunate to be a part of [it].  It’s special to see how people come together … from different generations or different backgrounds.  You would never expect them to have anything in common [but] they find something in common through this live music experience.

Is the experience different every night?

It’s different every night but the effect is the same. How it happens every night is different.  For instance, when we’re playing in a subway, if we’re playing in a subway car, it’s going to be much different than when we’re playing at Carnegie Hall.  If we’re playing somewhere that’s … in a different country, for instance … We were just in Lebanon, it’s going to be a much different experience than when we play London.  The culture and the energy that the people give us is what we give right back to them and vice versa.  When that connection is made and the audience is open to having this live music experience and we are at the top of our game and playing everything with this spirit of inclusiveness, what ends up happening is a transformative experience.  I know if it’s going to happen [within] the first five minutes of the show.  It’s just the question of is the audience open to it and are we open to the audience?

Do you and your band members have any pre-show rituals?

We don’t have any pre-show rituals.  I like to take Duke Ellington’s band as a good example of how I like to be a band leader in the context of Stay Human and any project I’m the leader of in the sense of everybody has their own way of kind of getting focused and getting into their zones.  That’s what makes people great communicators on their instruments and great artists.  They have their own world that they’ve created musically and know how to get into and no one else knows how they do it.  I just let the guys do their things.  When we get on stage, I know that since we have the same value for the music and the same direction as far as wanting to make it great, even though we’re coming from different places, musically, that by the time we hit the stage we’re going to be ready. 

I have my own rituals but never a collective ritual.  I’m very introverted. … I have to be alone right before the show up until about five minutes before we go on stage.  But not for very long, maybe for about 10 minutes.  It just helps me get a perspective. Before that 10 minutes I love to be in the opposite extreme.  I like to go to the venue early, suss the venue out and seek different ways we can transform the space  … making the [whole] room feel like it’s the stage [and] not … like there is something separating the audience from the performance. … Also getting used to the instrument because I play a different piano every night.  Then going into the venue amongst the people once the crowd starts coming in so I can sort of feel that energy.   Then I need that 10 minutes to process all of everything that I’ve discovered.

About playing a different piano every night – some music fans might not realize that pianists, for a variety of reasons, may not travel with their own piano and choose to rent the instrument locally for each stop on a tour.

Right.  It’s always the same brand because I’m a Steinway performing artist [and] they’re really helpful in locating a Steinway wherever we go.  Even then it’s a different piano every night, rented locally. So you have to figure out a way to get your sound on an instrument you’ve never played before.

Do you travel with an electronic keyboard, something portable so you can work out ideas between shows?

The Harmonaboard [Melodica] is something I love.  It’s not a piano by any means. It’s portable enough to work out ideas and figure out melodies so I like to have that with me wherever I go.

Do you hear music out of random sounds such as traffic noises or subway sounds?

The rhythm of the city and the rhythm of any place inspires me and all the great artists that I admire share that same sentiment.  It’s almost as if you can consider the universe a rhythm and New York, Wyoming, London, Paris, they all contribute to this giant and beautiful polyrhythm that is the universe.  When you immerse yourself into one of those rhythms you can really find inspiration and find what this place is all about.  [New York is] fast-paced [and] you can hear that when you listen to the street sounds and the traffic.  Like the album, MY NY, you can actually hear all of those things in the recording we did on the subway.  [Having] the sounds in the recording was part of the inspiration for me doing that entire record on the subway.  It really does capture the experience of being in New York when you listen to it.

Are there other places where you discovered music or were inspired by the local sounds where you would not have expected?

When you think of places that don’t have loud or obtuse environmental sounds, like somewhere in the middle of nowhere, that’s [also] inspiring.  Space is the loudest sound of all. Miles Davis said that was one of the ways he approached music – he was always trying to figure out where the space was.

You’re the artistic director at large of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. What does that entail?

I shape the artistic vision of the museum from now and into the future and plan for that while also being an ambassador.  “At large” means that I’m touring and performing and spreading this vision and message of what we represent at the museum everywhere I go.  While at the same time I’m working with a team whenever I am in Harlem to internally develop our direction and curate programming.  There’s a great program that I curated, that has been one of the most popular things at the museum visitors center, entitled “Jazz Is Now.”  It’s something that is open just the way social music is open.  It’s something [for] people who are basically novice and [haven’t been] exposed to jazz, to those who were there at the Cotton Club and are in their ’80s and reminiscing about the good old days.  It’s open to every one of them. … It’s all based around … how to listen to jazz and how jazz is put together.  It breaks down the relevance of jazz into their everyday lives and into modern culture and why jazz is now.

Does this also include working with grade school children?

We’ve done a lot of programming with them.  The audience of “Jazz Is Now” is literally from 8 to 83.  There’s a kid who I worked with who comes every week now.  When I met him he was 11 and we did a program at the Jazz Museum where we created a jazz video game with six kids in grade school up until their teenage years. He’s one of the kids who applied for that program.  He’s been coming to the museum ever since.  So we do everything we possibly can to make it the center of the youth jazz culture while still recognizing that tradition.

When public schools experience tough financial times and tighten their belts, it seems as if music programs are the first to go. How do you counter that?

Being the artistic director at large for the museum, one of the main things I want to do and what we are planning on doing on this tour, is go to schools every place we go and start some sort of community by being in contact with them and interfacing with them. Bringing the students to the performances, doing master classes and bringing the students on stage with us whenever possible so they can get a taste of what it’s like, know what the real world has to offer and keep that excitement and fire burning.

If more artists were to … bring the music to the students where they are and forget about trying to go through the programmatic route of dealing with all the bureaucracy that goes into planning through the school system, I think … it would change a lot for the students.  Of course, the students would then carry on the traditions themselves.

Convincing children that music is important is one thing, but how do you convince their parents?

One of the questions I always ask in the master class is for everyone in the room to imagine what the world would be like without music, the arts, or any sort of expression.  A lot of times I don’t ask for answers or ask for people to give me what they see in their minds.  It’s just a consensus around the room that, “Wow! That would really be terrible.” 

It’s really always been clear to the adults and everyone who is in charge of the education system just how important math and science and everything like that is, but no one has really figured out how to put that into a really clear and understandable sort of philosophy for music and the arts.  It really needs to be done in that way.  I don’t know exactly how that can be done but I definitely think it’s possible even though it’s less tangible than other subjects.

Working with someone such as Lenny Kravitz or Prince, what do you take away or learn from those experiences?

They have their own worlds, and I always learn from going into somebody else’s world. You can take away what they do and how they put their thing together.

What advice could you give a young person who is considering a music career?

One of the main things about music is never forgetting why you are excited about music or inspired to do music in the first place.  I see a lot of people who are talented … and end up doing music [but] it’s not really what they love to do, they’re just good at it.  Those who may not be as talented but really love and want to do it and would do it … I would encourage those people to do it more even than those who are just talented.  Because it’s a really hard career. It takes a lot of persistence to actually create a career that has longevity and is exactly what you want to do.  You have to really remember what it is that excited you about it and why you’re doing it.  And always keep that at the center of what you’re doing.

Jon Batiste and Stay Human’s Social Music is available for preorder via this link.  Here are the upcoming shows:

Oct. 4 – Seattle, Wash., The Neptune
Oct. 5 – Bellingham, Wash., Mount Baker Theatre
Oct. 10 – Mesa, Ariz., Virginia Piper Repertory Theatre
Oct. 12 – New York, N.Y., Zankel Hall At Carnegie Hall
Oct. 16 – Calgary, Alberta, Jack Singer Concert Hall
Oct. 18 – Northridge, Calif., Valley Performing Arts Center
Oct. 19 – Irvine, Calif., Irvine Barclay Theatre
Oct. 23 – Carmel, Calif., Sunset Cultural Center
Oct. 24 – Livermore, Calif., Bankhead Theater
Oct. 26 – Rohnert Park, Calif., Weill Hall @ Sonoma State University
Oct. 27 – Palo Alto, Calif., Bing Concert Hall @ Stanford University
Nov. 1 – Fort Collins, Colo., Lincoln Center
Nov. 2 – Parker, Colo., Parker Arts Culture and Events Center
Nov. 7 – Tucson, Ariz., Hotel Congress
Jan. 9 – Port Washington, N.Y., Landmark On Main Street
Jan. 15 – Carmel, Ind., Tarkington Center For The Performing Arts
Jan. 16 – Iowa City, Iowa, Englert Theater
Jan. 17 – Kansas City, Mo., Folly Theater
Jan. 18 – St. Louis, Mo., Sheldon Concert Hall
Jan. 19 – Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines Performing Arts – Civic Center
Jan. 21 – Detroit, Mich., Jazz Cafe at Music Hall
Jan. 23 – Akron, Ohio, E.J. Thomas Hall
Jan. 25 – Germantown, Tenn., Germantown Performing Arts Centre
Jan. 26 – Nashville, Tenn., Ingram Center For The Arts
Feb. 13 – Charlotte, N.C., Blumenthal Performing Arts
Feb. 14 – Durham, N.C., Carolina Theatre
Feb. 15 – High Point, N.C., High Point Theatre
Feb. 16 – Minneapolis, Minn., Orchestra Hall
Feb. 18 – Tampa, Fla., Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
Feb. 20 – Gainesville, Fla., Univ. Of FL Phillips Center
Feb. 22 – Decatur, Ala., Princess Theatre
Feb. 23 – Birmingham, Ala., Samford University
Feb. 24 – Birmingham, Ala., Samford University
Feb. 25 – Opelika, Ala., The Opelika Cultural Center Auditorium
Feb. 27 – Baton Rouge, La., Manship Theatre
Feb. 28 – Baton Rouge, La., Manship Theatre
March 2 – Austin, Texas, Paramount Theatre
March 4 – Fort Worth, Texas, Nancy Lee & Perry R Bass Performance Hall
March 8 – Cutler Bay, Fla., South Miami Dade Cultural Center
March 14 – Las Vegas, Nev., The Smith Center / Cabaret Jazz
March 19 – Davis, Calif., U.C. Davis Center For The Arts
March 25 – Las Vegas, Nev., The Smith Center/ Cabaret Jazz
March 28 – Washington, D.C., Sixth & I Synagogue
April 3 – Markham, Ontario, Flato Markham Theatre
April 4 – Oakville, Ontario, The Oakville Centre For The Performing Arts
April 5 – Kingston, Ontario, Grand Theatre
April 10 – St. Louis, Mo., Roberts Orpheum Theater
April 12 – Stony Brook, N.Y., Staller Center For The Arts
April 13 – Englewood, N.J., Bergen Performing Arts Ctr.       

Please visit JonBatiste.com for more information.