Jon Batiste

Jon Batiste (born November 11, 1986, Metairie, Louisiana, U.S.) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and singer who is perhaps best known for his time as bandleader and musical director (2015–22) for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Batiste’s music is influenced by his New Orleans roots and combines elements of the city’s distinctive style of jazz with funk and rhythm and blues.

Early life and education

Batiste was born and raised in Louisiana. He showed aptitude in music from an early age, the drums being his first instrument. Members of his family were bastions of the New Orleans music scene, and Jon played with them as part of the Batiste Brothers Band (along with his father). He started playing with the band when he was eight, first performing on the drums and later switching to piano, which he mastered quickly.

Batiste attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, graduating in 2004 and moving on to the Juilliard School in New York City. There, in 2008 he earned a bachelor’s degree, specializing in jazz, followed by a master’s degree in jazz in 2011. In 2018 Juilliard chose Batiste to be an inaugural member of the Arnhold Creative Associates program, for artists in residence to pursue innovative and collaborative projects at the school. He joined the school’s board in 2022.

Bands and albums

Batiste released his first album, an instrumental work entitled Times in New Orleans, in 2005. After moving to New York City, Batiste began performing as part of a trio with bassist Philip Kuehn and drummer Joe Saylor. The group later added saxophonist Eddie Barbash, and the ensemble became known as Stay Human. Stay Human’s debut, an EP entitled My N.Y. that was recorded busker-style entirely on New York subway trains and street corners, was released in 2011. It was followed by the full-length album Social Music in 2013.

In 2016 Batiste released an album of holiday music, Christmas with Jon Batiste. Two years later, he dropped Hollywood Africans, which was produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett. The following year saw the live companion albums Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard and Chronology of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard, recorded in concert during his 2018 residency at the famed New York City theater. Meditations, an album also featuring the guitar work of Cory Wong, followed in 2020, and that year Batiste also recorded the Black Lives Matter protest song “We Are.” In 2021 Batiste released the full pop album We Are, which featured guest appearances by Mavis Staples and author Zadie Smith, among others.

World Music Radio, built on a theme of musical community, arrived in 2023. Guest appearances on the album include those by Lana Del Rey and Kenny G. Batiste also composed music for and landed a role in Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer (2012), and he composed and performed songs for Pixar’s animated film Soul (2020). He also wrote a song for the 2021 documentary about the COVID-19 pandemic The First Wave. In addition to acting in Lee’s film, Batiste made other appearances, including acting in four episodes of the New Orleans-based TV show Treme (2011–13) and the motion picture remake of The Color Purple (2023).

The Late Show

Batiste and Stay Human made appearances on Stephen Colbert’s political satire The Colbert Report in 2014. As a result of their popularity, the group was named the official band of The Late Show the next year, with Batiste as musical director and bandleader. The group’s music was heard by millions of people over the course of 338 episodes, and the rapport between Colbert and Batiste, showcased in comfortable banter during each show, helped to make Batiste a celebrity. In 2016 the group released The Late Show EP, consisting of intros and outros, as well as musical numbers played during the show’s commercial breaks.

Documentary and awards

Batiste’s compositions and performances have received worldwide acclaim. He has been nominated for some 20 Grammy Awards, five of which he won, including best score soundtrack for Soul in 2021 and album of the year for We Are in 2022. Batiste’s work on Soul also earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and an NAACP Image Award. In the process, Batiste joined jazz musician Herbie Hancock as only the second Black musician to win a composition Academy Award. Batiste’s song “It Never Went Away” from the documentary American Symphony (2023), which chronicled the cancer treatments of his wife, Suleika Jaouad, was also nominated for an Academy Award. Other nominations included those for a public service Peabody Award in 2023 and outstanding male artist at the 2024 NAACP Image Awards.

Batiste also is a traveling ambassador for Music Unites, a nonprofit organization that supports music education, and is a co-artistic director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York City.