WEBVTT - Jon Batiste 0:00:15.436 --> 0:00:22.916 Pushkin. Hey, y'all, it's justin Richmond. Today on the show, 0:00:22.996 --> 0:00:27.076 we're talking to John Batiste, someone who I absolutely love 0:00:27.156 --> 0:00:30.276 for bringing jazz back to Late Night. From the days 0:00:30.276 --> 0:00:33.916 of Doc seven Sin on Carson to Branford Marsalis on Leno, 0:00:34.276 --> 0:00:37.076 Late Night was one of the last places keeping jazz 0:00:37.116 --> 0:00:41.156 alive in households across the country. Of course, it would 0:00:41.196 --> 0:00:44.236 be John Batiste to bring that tradition back. Batiste is 0:00:44.276 --> 0:00:47.596 an overachiever. As a kid, he was a state champion 0:00:47.636 --> 0:00:50.796 basketball player and a chess champion. And then when he 0:00:50.796 --> 0:00:53.356 turned his attention to music at age fourteen, after picking 0:00:53.396 --> 0:00:56.076 up drums then switching to piano, he started a band 0:00:56.116 --> 0:00:59.996 with fellow New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty, and that still 0:01:00.156 --> 0:01:03.996 wasn't enough. He had to then go to Juilliard. Today, 0:01:04.036 --> 0:01:06.156 Batiste is the band leader on The Late Show with 0:01:06.236 --> 0:01:09.036 Stephen Colbert and an Oscar winning composer for the Pick 0:01:09.156 --> 0:01:13.196 Sorry animated movie Soul. He also received the highest number 0:01:13.236 --> 0:01:17.556 of Grammy nominations this year, with eleven, including Album of 0:01:17.596 --> 0:01:21.396 the Year for his most recent release, We Are Let's 0:01:21.396 --> 0:01:23.436 listen to a bit of the song Cry from that album, 0:01:23.516 --> 0:01:44.916 which expertly blends a number of genres. John considers we 0:01:45.076 --> 0:01:48.196 are his best work yet. As you can tell from 0:01:48.236 --> 0:01:52.116 that clip, it's an accessible mix of jazz, blues, soul, 0:01:52.316 --> 0:01:55.356 and hip hop. Batisse talks with Bruce Headlam today about 0:01:55.396 --> 0:01:58.556 what it was like coming up in legendary Nola barrooms. 0:01:59.036 --> 0:02:01.036 He also talks about setting up a piano in the 0:02:01.076 --> 0:02:04.756 midst of Brooklyn protests after George Floyd's murder, and he 0:02:04.796 --> 0:02:07.636 talks about what it meant to have Obama call him 0:02:07.636 --> 0:02:13.236 personally after hearing his new album, This is Broken raping 0:02:13.556 --> 0:02:18.596 liner notes for the digital Age. I'm justin Richard. Here's 0:02:18.636 --> 0:02:22.836 Bruce Headlam with John Batiste. Let's start by talking about 0:02:23.276 --> 0:02:25.876 year album which came out last year and it's been 0:02:25.916 --> 0:02:28.396 nominated for a million Grammys. You're gonna be one of 0:02:28.436 --> 0:02:29.876 those guys at the end of your career who has 0:02:29.916 --> 0:02:33.916 like one hundred and seventy Grammys, right, my goodness. Well, 0:02:34.036 --> 0:02:36.196 you know, I make music and I just keep my 0:02:36.236 --> 0:02:38.636 head down and work on the craft. And this is 0:02:38.676 --> 0:02:42.436 incredible because think about the process this year for the Grammys, 0:02:42.476 --> 0:02:47.156 how transparent it's become, and this year they're really pushing 0:02:47.196 --> 0:02:52.436 for it to be peer voted without so many committees, 0:02:53.196 --> 0:02:56.196 and to have everybody who's an expert in their field 0:02:56.676 --> 0:03:01.276 nominate me in their field, you know, classical folk. I 0:03:01.316 --> 0:03:04.396 don't know what to say. It's just an honor beyond words, 0:03:04.436 --> 0:03:07.916 and I'm very humbled by the nominations. You know, one 0:03:07.956 --> 0:03:10.636 thing about this album, like listening to it with your 0:03:10.676 --> 0:03:13.956 other albums, is this is such a rhythmic album. Did 0:03:13.996 --> 0:03:16.156 you write it differently? Were you writing it at the 0:03:16.156 --> 0:03:18.996 piano or did you start with rhythm for some of 0:03:18.996 --> 0:03:24.436 these songs. Well, I think that I'm just getting more 0:03:25.076 --> 0:03:27.956 and more in tune with my artist trip, and I 0:03:27.996 --> 0:03:31.116 feel like I'm just getting started, feel like I'm getting better. 0:03:31.716 --> 0:03:36.196 I don't know why. There's this mentality that artists as 0:03:36.196 --> 0:03:38.356 they get older, you know, they peak and then at 0:03:38.356 --> 0:03:42.356 some point they can't find the rhythm again. And maybe 0:03:42.396 --> 0:03:43.996 that would be true for me. But I feel like 0:03:44.476 --> 0:03:47.116 this album is my first album. It's almost as if 0:03:47.116 --> 0:03:50.236 I'm a late bloomer in that way. I started music 0:03:51.116 --> 0:03:54.236 and recording when I was sixteen seventeen, but you know, 0:03:54.316 --> 0:03:56.556 this feels like my first album in the sense of 0:03:56.596 --> 0:04:00.756 me getting my game in my package together. You did 0:04:00.836 --> 0:04:03.596 start as a drummer, is that right. Yeah, I started 0:04:03.636 --> 0:04:06.276 as a drummer. I dabbled on piano, but I was 0:04:06.716 --> 0:04:11.156 not a pianist by definition. Now, a lot of pianist 0:04:11.196 --> 0:04:14.476 I've talked to really started at as drummers. They say 0:04:14.516 --> 0:04:16.716 it had a big effect on their piano playing. Did 0:04:16.756 --> 0:04:20.436 being a drummer affect how you approached the piano? Everything 0:04:20.556 --> 0:04:25.196 is everything. You get a sense of connectivity between all 0:04:25.236 --> 0:04:28.116 types of activities that you do, especially at that age. 0:04:28.156 --> 0:04:29.916 You know, I'm thinking about when I was eleven. I 0:04:29.956 --> 0:04:34.796 don't think there's anything that directly impacted the next thing, 0:04:35.116 --> 0:04:39.476 but it all affected everything. I didn't actively become a 0:04:39.556 --> 0:04:43.916 musician or a music listener until I was about fifteen 0:04:43.996 --> 0:04:48.156 or sixteen. Everything before that point was acquired through osmosis. 0:04:48.956 --> 0:04:52.516 I had so many different experiences from my dad being 0:04:52.516 --> 0:04:56.076 a musician and my uncle's plan in the blues and 0:04:56.556 --> 0:04:59.596 Chitland circuit of the Southeast United States, and then Plan 0:04:59.836 --> 0:05:04.276 you know folks like Jackie Wilson, Isaac Hayes, King, Floyd 0:05:04.436 --> 0:05:07.916 Lloyd Price, blues singers, folks singers, soul singers of the 0:05:07.996 --> 0:05:11.756 black idiom of that time. Then you have my sister 0:05:11.836 --> 0:05:14.396 who's listening to cash money records and the Hot Boys 0:05:14.436 --> 0:05:18.396 and Alanis Moore set on cassette tape, my cousins who 0:05:18.396 --> 0:05:23.356 are advanced music producers at this time, producing making beats, rapping. 0:05:23.876 --> 0:05:27.156 You know. I was studying classical piano lessons. My mom, 0:05:27.276 --> 0:05:29.876 she insisted that I take classical music. She was not 0:05:29.956 --> 0:05:33.876 a musician, but a very aerodype person. She had two degrees. 0:05:33.916 --> 0:05:36.556 She was an environmentalist before it was in vogue. She 0:05:36.596 --> 0:05:38.756 would tell me to read books and things that I 0:05:38.756 --> 0:05:42.316 didn't have any real connection to in my environment. But 0:05:42.356 --> 0:05:43.836 it just kind of got me to thinking about a 0:05:43.836 --> 0:05:48.956 lot of things. And then I played sports, played basketball 0:05:48.996 --> 0:05:52.756 competitively until I was fourteen fifteen, won a national AAU 0:05:52.876 --> 0:05:57.356 championship and things like that, chess championships. I was a 0:05:57.396 --> 0:05:59.396 gamer and a comic book kid more than a music fan. 0:05:59.916 --> 0:06:02.116 And then I also went to jazz camps because I'm 0:06:02.116 --> 0:06:04.236 in New Orleans and I'm studying with these guys who 0:06:04.236 --> 0:06:08.956 are like village elders. You're talking about Ellis Marsalis, Alvin Batiz, 0:06:09.156 --> 0:06:11.556 my late great mentor and the one who actually helped 0:06:11.596 --> 0:06:14.156 me to find my voice as a jazz musician when 0:06:14.156 --> 0:06:16.396 I was fifteen sixteen. But this is when I was 0:06:16.436 --> 0:06:18.476 like eleven or twelve, and I didn't understand the word 0:06:18.476 --> 0:06:20.116 he was saying, and I was just doing it because 0:06:20.156 --> 0:06:22.716 it was another one of the many activities and things 0:06:22.716 --> 0:06:25.796 that I was doing. So I didn't really buy my 0:06:25.836 --> 0:06:28.716 first record or listen to music or say that this 0:06:28.916 --> 0:06:32.436 influenced that as a musician until I was about fifteen. 0:06:33.316 --> 0:06:35.916 I was ambivalent to it. It was just around me 0:06:36.476 --> 0:06:40.876 before that age. I wasn't really an active musician or 0:06:40.876 --> 0:06:44.636 considered myself a musician until I was fifteen. So it's 0:06:44.676 --> 0:06:47.716 hard for me to say that my drumming was an 0:06:47.756 --> 0:06:51.956 impactful thing on my piano playing because it was all 0:06:52.756 --> 0:06:56.396 just a part of this really rich tapestry of my 0:06:56.556 --> 0:06:59.476 upbringing that I was fortunate enough to be born into. 0:06:59.796 --> 0:07:02.756 Without even my knowledge of it being something that is 0:07:02.796 --> 0:07:05.356 so culturally rich or diverse, I just was in it. 0:07:05.636 --> 0:07:07.836 And I actually was more ambivalent to being a musician 0:07:07.836 --> 0:07:11.276 than anything, because everybody was a musician on my father's 0:07:11.236 --> 0:07:13.436 side of the family. So it was just like, well, 0:07:13.596 --> 0:07:16.036 I do this, but I don't want to do this 0:07:16.076 --> 0:07:19.196 for a living. I mean the family business. You want 0:07:19.196 --> 0:07:21.716 to escape, Yeah, it's like what you know. Couple with 0:07:21.836 --> 0:07:24.396 the fact that I had this feeling that I wanted 0:07:24.396 --> 0:07:27.356 to leave New Orleans to explore the world and see 0:07:27.396 --> 0:07:29.956 the world because I just had so many ideas about 0:07:29.996 --> 0:07:32.356 what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be, 0:07:32.916 --> 0:07:36.116 and at a certain point, as beautiful as home is 0:07:36.156 --> 0:07:38.556 and it'll always be home for me, I felt like 0:07:38.596 --> 0:07:41.876 I needed to make a home for myself somewhere else. 0:07:42.876 --> 0:07:45.036 And one of your songs is about that, isn't it? 0:07:45.076 --> 0:07:47.636 On the new albums at Boyhood? About Is that about 0:07:47.676 --> 0:07:49.596 your father telling you to what it's going to be 0:07:49.636 --> 0:07:51.996 like in New York City? Do you thinking of boyhood? 0:07:52.036 --> 0:07:54.556 And tell the Truth? Both songs are about this idea 0:07:54.636 --> 0:07:58.076 of growing up, coming out of this age of being 0:07:58.076 --> 0:08:01.316 a boy and a child and a son of your parents, 0:08:01.396 --> 0:08:03.916 to being a man, being your own man, and understanding 0:08:04.236 --> 0:08:06.756 you know. He says, tell it like it is love 0:08:06.796 --> 0:08:08.756 how you live and when you're doing what you do, 0:08:09.196 --> 0:08:12.196 tell the truth. A lot of people tell you have fun, 0:08:12.356 --> 0:08:15.076 do your best, but tell the truth. Tell the truth 0:08:15.196 --> 0:08:17.796 is different to do your best, have fun, give it 0:08:17.836 --> 0:08:22.116 you all. Tell the truth says something very specific about 0:08:22.196 --> 0:08:24.596 you going into a dinner Vipers. You're going into a 0:08:24.636 --> 0:08:27.716 place where there's a lot of posturing and dishonesty and 0:08:27.916 --> 0:08:34.716 lacks authenticity. So what's gonna make you successful? What's your 0:08:34.716 --> 0:08:37.396 definition of success? At least that he was trying to 0:08:37.436 --> 0:08:39.916 impart to me. And what that song is about is 0:08:40.756 --> 0:08:44.316 a lot of people may not see your truth as 0:08:44.436 --> 0:08:48.276 successful or as the way or as the thing that 0:08:48.476 --> 0:08:51.916 is what you should be pursuing. But tell it like 0:08:51.996 --> 0:08:54.676 it is love how you live when when you're doing 0:08:54.716 --> 0:08:57.116 what you do, tell the truth. So tell the truth 0:08:57.236 --> 0:09:01.036 is really about that. You know, those lyrics are all true. 0:09:01.236 --> 0:09:03.396 Listening to that song. My dad had a small house 0:09:03.476 --> 0:09:06.836 up on the east side East Louisiana State Drive, small 0:09:06.916 --> 0:09:09.556 house up on the east side of the Magnani tree 0:09:09.596 --> 0:09:11.196 in the front yard. You know, this is where I 0:09:11.236 --> 0:09:13.596 grew up. He grew up in The times were hard 0:09:13.636 --> 0:09:15.996 and gritty. You know, tell me stories about growing up 0:09:16.036 --> 0:09:19.916 on tour, people coming into the club pulling out a 0:09:20.036 --> 0:09:23.076 rifle and the band having to jump behind stacks to 0:09:23.156 --> 0:09:26.996 amplify as a driving packing the van, you know, touring 0:09:27.036 --> 0:09:31.316 and driving, being the tour manager, the band performing and 0:09:31.396 --> 0:09:34.716 also the roadie all in one. Yeah, you know, this 0:09:34.796 --> 0:09:38.276 is the kind of stuff that that song is about. Wow, 0:09:38.476 --> 0:09:40.316 do you think you've been able to do that your 0:09:40.316 --> 0:09:42.796 whole career. Has there ever been a time you thought 0:09:43.116 --> 0:09:45.196 I'm not quite doing it, I'm not quite telling the 0:09:45.236 --> 0:09:49.276 truth here. No, I've always told the truth. That's whether 0:09:49.316 --> 0:09:54.276 it's to my immediate career advancement or detriment. And I've 0:09:54.276 --> 0:09:56.076 always told the truth. I've happened to get to a 0:09:56.156 --> 0:09:58.316 point now where telling the truth has allowed me to 0:09:58.316 --> 0:10:01.036 win an Oscar and being nominated for all these Grammys 0:10:01.036 --> 0:10:03.436 and all these things. But I know, I don't take 0:10:03.436 --> 0:10:05.956 it for granted. I'm very humble by the fact that 0:10:06.316 --> 0:10:08.556 me being who I am and being recognized in this 0:10:08.676 --> 0:10:11.036 way as a me to have success. And I'm on 0:10:11.116 --> 0:10:13.676 TV and I'm playing a night in Tunisia on TV. 0:10:14.036 --> 0:10:16.516 I'm playing jazz and these types of music you never 0:10:16.556 --> 0:10:18.556 hear on TV, at least when I was growing up, 0:10:18.556 --> 0:10:20.756 I didn't hear it. And now I'm able to be 0:10:20.796 --> 0:10:22.996 a household name in a sense doing something that's so 0:10:23.116 --> 0:10:25.836 true to me. And one day that's not gonna work, 0:10:25.876 --> 0:10:28.516 I'm sure, so the tables will turn and it will 0:10:28.556 --> 0:10:31.476 be a moment where me doing this thing and doing 0:10:31.516 --> 0:10:33.436 my things not necessarily going to be the thing that 0:10:33.556 --> 0:10:36.196 is going to advance me the most. I'm getting better 0:10:36.236 --> 0:10:38.876 at telling the truth of who I am and making 0:10:38.916 --> 0:10:44.396 it something that most people can understand. It's accessible, it's translatable, 0:10:44.996 --> 0:10:47.796 and that's the goal, right. It's not about popularity. It's 0:10:47.796 --> 0:10:50.716 about tapping into something in the soul of human kind 0:10:51.236 --> 0:10:54.356 that is universal and makes people feel like they're not alone. 0:10:54.796 --> 0:10:57.516 So if I can do that, boom, it's a win. 0:10:58.156 --> 0:11:00.396 When I was listening to this album, you do a 0:11:00.436 --> 0:11:03.316 lot of things with your voice. You got a lot 0:11:03.356 --> 0:11:07.356 of different sounds, and that used to be more common 0:11:08.396 --> 0:11:12.236 and I'm thinking more pop and soul singers like Stevie 0:11:12.236 --> 0:11:14.236 Wonder when they talk about his voice, he's got like 0:11:14.596 --> 0:11:18.036 three or four voices. Paul McCartney's another one who would 0:11:18.036 --> 0:11:21.356 like he'd growl sometimes, he would do different things. Tell 0:11:21.396 --> 0:11:24.516 me how you how you approach singing. It's about the 0:11:24.556 --> 0:11:28.956 message of the song. It's about serving the message of 0:11:28.996 --> 0:11:35.156 the song, and that means that you have something that 0:11:35.236 --> 0:11:41.636 you can say honestly. The voice doesn't lie. The voice 0:11:41.756 --> 0:11:46.436 is so pure and we're so in tune with hearing 0:11:46.516 --> 0:11:51.036 people's voices from the time that we're born. Musicians, non musicians, 0:11:51.156 --> 0:11:55.116 music lovers, non music lovers. We just have this radar 0:11:55.916 --> 0:12:00.476 for truth in the voice, for emotion being transmitted through 0:12:00.476 --> 0:12:05.796 the voice. And if someone knows that you're not bought 0:12:05.876 --> 0:12:09.756 in or you're telling something that isn't really to your 0:12:09.836 --> 0:12:14.596 core a truth for you is not going to stay connected. 0:12:14.796 --> 0:12:16.996 But for me, the easiest way to do that is 0:12:17.036 --> 0:12:19.716 to just be telling the truth all the time, or 0:12:19.756 --> 0:12:21.876 to say something that you really mean all the time. 0:12:22.316 --> 0:12:24.116 And if I can't get to that, something needs to 0:12:24.116 --> 0:12:26.836 be adjusted with the music. Something needs to be adjusted 0:12:26.876 --> 0:12:29.596 with the lyric, something needs to be adjusted with the key, 0:12:29.876 --> 0:12:33.196 something needs to be adjusted somewhere because I'm not feeling it. 0:12:33.236 --> 0:12:36.516 I'm not getting to that space with it. Were there 0:12:36.516 --> 0:12:39.156 songs on this album that you struggled with to find 0:12:39.196 --> 0:12:42.516 the right voice for? Oh, absolutely all of them. I 0:12:42.556 --> 0:12:45.476 wouldn't say struggle with, but there were a process for 0:12:45.516 --> 0:12:47.796 some of them that didn't come as natural, Like Freedom 0:12:47.836 --> 0:12:49.876 came natural. That's the first take that you hear on 0:12:49.916 --> 0:12:53.116 the record for Freedom? Is that right? Yeah? Sung that 0:12:53.196 --> 0:12:56.156 straight down? That was just like, I don't know. That 0:12:56.236 --> 0:12:58.636 was one of those ones. I need you was like 0:12:58.756 --> 0:13:01.916 that too, not the first take, but like in the 0:13:01.956 --> 0:13:04.596 first three takes, I typically only want to do six 0:13:04.716 --> 0:13:09.076 takes at the most. Three is really my sweet spot. 0:13:10.196 --> 0:13:13.476 I don't like doing more than six takes. I feel 0:13:13.476 --> 0:13:16.676 like something misses, I'll have to labor over it in 0:13:16.756 --> 0:13:20.596 my mind for months. Adulthood was like that. Adulthood was 0:13:20.636 --> 0:13:22.756 the last one I finished because it was such a 0:13:22.836 --> 0:13:26.436 personal song for me, but it was covert at the 0:13:26.476 --> 0:13:30.236 same time. You know, it's KOI personal, but koy and 0:13:30.356 --> 0:13:33.116 just finding that tone and the spacing of it and 0:13:33.156 --> 0:13:36.196 the music already said so much. And then I'm also 0:13:36.276 --> 0:13:40.236 going in that song from singing in my falsetto to rapping, 0:13:40.716 --> 0:13:44.836 to go from these two vocal approaches and have it 0:13:44.996 --> 0:13:49.156 be connected in a way that feels organic and inevitable. 0:13:49.356 --> 0:13:51.396 It just took a lot of thought in thinking through. 0:13:51.716 --> 0:13:54.236 I love the way that that came out. Did you 0:13:54.276 --> 0:13:59.716 actually did you sing and rap in the same take? Yeah? Wow, 0:14:00.556 --> 0:14:03.956 Well that's not always the case. You know. I think 0:14:03.996 --> 0:14:08.116 about production quality more than I think about trying to 0:14:08.156 --> 0:14:12.436 preserve a take unless it's the live performance, live band 0:14:12.476 --> 0:14:15.796 type of album. I don't typically try to perform to 0:14:15.836 --> 0:14:18.996 take unless that's what's best for the take. Like Boyhood. 0:14:18.996 --> 0:14:23.116 You mentioned Boyhood earlier. Boyhood The production style for that 0:14:23.236 --> 0:14:27.756 is not as a performance. It's it's more about this 0:14:27.836 --> 0:14:32.516 is a produced rap record, an impressionistic rap record, whereas 0:14:32.516 --> 0:14:40.036 a song like Cry, that's a performance that's on stage 0:14:40.036 --> 0:14:43.036 with the guitar and we just sing that down with 0:14:43.076 --> 0:14:45.396 the band. I remember we we played that when in 0:14:45.476 --> 0:14:48.716 the band band was playing. Steve Jordan was on the drums, 0:14:48.756 --> 0:14:53.316 incredible Steve Jordan playing and he was doing this thing 0:14:53.956 --> 0:14:58.356 and he started to scream. He said, oh, he started 0:14:58.356 --> 0:15:01.236 to scream when he found the right pocket. He was like, 0:15:02.276 --> 0:15:04.716 this is gonna be the take. You gotta this, this, 0:15:04.716 --> 0:15:07.156 this is this is it. You gotta record, you gotta record, 0:15:07.276 --> 0:15:09.436 you know, we record everything. And he he's like, you 0:15:09.436 --> 0:15:13.596 gotta record. This is gonna be the take, and everybody 0:15:13.636 --> 0:15:15.716 says that, but when he says it, I know it's true. 0:15:15.796 --> 0:15:18.436 He's got a gift for that. So Steve was locked 0:15:18.436 --> 0:15:22.076 in and everybody just locked in at the same time. 0:15:23.196 --> 0:15:25.356 And when it's like that, you just gotta hit it. 0:15:25.596 --> 0:15:27.956 You gotta hit you gotta make it, make it happen, baby, 0:15:27.956 --> 0:15:31.916 come on, sing it sing. It was that great guitar 0:15:32.076 --> 0:15:36.236 solo on the same take too. Yeah, that's Robert Randolph 0:15:36.556 --> 0:15:41.636 Robert Randolph is an incredible sacred pedal steel musician, obviously 0:15:41.796 --> 0:15:45.876 of world renowned. People who know about his music know 0:15:45.996 --> 0:15:48.836 that he's one of the kings of that style. He 0:15:48.956 --> 0:15:51.596 just he knows how to do what he's doing, so 0:15:51.676 --> 0:15:54.116 you just let him have it. It's really more about 0:15:54.196 --> 0:15:58.716 finding the pocket, the space where I wanted to put it. 0:15:59.236 --> 0:16:01.716 Tell me about writing that song, because it seems one 0:16:01.716 --> 0:16:07.476 of the most plaintiff and most kind of emotionally open 0:16:07.596 --> 0:16:30.076 songs on the record, that right there that I felt 0:16:30.116 --> 0:16:35.756 that in my soul. I felt that piano riff bow 0:16:35.796 --> 0:16:39.796 the weeny. I felt that, and I didn't know what 0:16:39.836 --> 0:16:41.796 I wanted to say, but I felt that. One day, 0:16:42.036 --> 0:16:44.356 I sat and I played that and I put it 0:16:44.356 --> 0:16:47.956 on loop and I just listened to it and we 0:16:48.076 --> 0:16:50.836 listened to it, and I called my friend Steve McEwen, 0:16:52.036 --> 0:16:53.916 and then he came over and we listened to it, 0:16:54.356 --> 0:16:57.636 and I was like, I want to say something with this, 0:16:58.116 --> 0:16:59.876 and I'm just trying to find the words, and I 0:16:59.916 --> 0:17:04.156 just started singing, which you know, sometimes ends up being 0:17:04.156 --> 0:17:06.876 a song, even if it starts out it's just mumbles 0:17:06.916 --> 0:17:11.476 or just turn into what I really want to say. 0:17:11.516 --> 0:17:16.156 It's in there somewhere and I just started cry cry. 0:17:19.076 --> 0:17:25.556 I just said, I just want to like cry, cry cry. 0:17:25.596 --> 0:17:28.116 You know, I started singing. I said I want to cry. 0:17:28.236 --> 0:17:32.036 But then he's like, that's that's what you want to say. 0:17:33.236 --> 0:17:37.116 It came out the chorus at least that kind of cry, 0:17:37.876 --> 0:17:41.956 cry cry. And then when when Nat was there and 0:17:41.996 --> 0:17:45.916 that was clear, and this when both of those things 0:17:45.916 --> 0:17:48.516 came together, the song just came out. We just wrote 0:17:48.516 --> 0:17:51.436 it that day, but it was I had to call Steve. 0:17:51.476 --> 0:17:53.676 Sometimes you gotta call a friend to kind of put 0:17:53.676 --> 0:17:57.676 the mirror up to yourself and you know, this is 0:17:57.756 --> 0:18:01.076 this is what you're saying. Can you see it more clearly? Now? 0:18:01.316 --> 0:18:04.196 It's like, okay, I got you. We're gonna take a 0:18:04.276 --> 0:18:06.556 quick break, but we'll be right back with more from 0:18:06.636 --> 0:18:15.356 John Batiste. We're back with Bruce Hellam's conversation with John Batiste. 0:18:16.156 --> 0:18:20.716 So you said you didn't take being musician seriously until 0:18:20.756 --> 0:18:23.356 you're around fifteen and started thinking of yourself as one. 0:18:23.876 --> 0:18:26.236 But then you put your first album out when you 0:18:26.276 --> 0:18:30.556 were seventeen. What flipped for you? What changed? I gotta 0:18:30.676 --> 0:18:33.596 give a lot of credit to seeing my peers who 0:18:34.196 --> 0:18:39.476 were doing it and also having mentorship from people who 0:18:39.516 --> 0:18:41.796 saw something in me that I didn't see it myself. 0:18:42.156 --> 0:18:45.996 So I'm thinking about peers of mine, like Sullivan Fortner, 0:18:46.276 --> 0:18:48.476 who wasn't a professional musician at the time, but I 0:18:48.556 --> 0:18:54.156 remember him playing the organ in church. I saw a 0:18:54.156 --> 0:18:57.236 clip of him as this whiz kid on public access television. 0:18:57.236 --> 0:18:59.596 He was playing the organ and the church at four 0:18:59.676 --> 0:19:02.956 years old, and he was the quiet, direct, incredible musician. 0:19:02.996 --> 0:19:05.316 We ended up going to school together. We practiced together 0:19:05.356 --> 0:19:07.756 for hours and hours at a time, you know, just 0:19:07.836 --> 0:19:12.036 seeing him somebody who was at the level where people 0:19:12.036 --> 0:19:13.676 were telling me I'm at this level and then I 0:19:13.716 --> 0:19:15.836 see this kid who's my age and then oh wow. 0:19:15.956 --> 0:19:19.676 Or seeing somebody like Troy Andrews trombone Shorty, who was 0:19:19.716 --> 0:19:24.116 out there touring when he was four years old. And 0:19:24.156 --> 0:19:27.076 then he came to me on the courtyard in high school. 0:19:27.476 --> 0:19:29.356 I was fourteen at the time, and he says, let's 0:19:29.356 --> 0:19:31.996 start a band together, you and I and we started 0:19:32.036 --> 0:19:34.916 playing at the Maple Leaf Bar, the historic bar on 0:19:34.956 --> 0:19:38.156 Oak Street. He's like fifteen to sixteen, fourteen, and we're 0:19:38.156 --> 0:19:42.076 playing in this club every week this New Orleans. So 0:19:42.116 --> 0:19:44.396 it's not an abnormal thing, but you know, you got 0:19:44.396 --> 0:19:47.316 this band led by these two fourteen year olds in 0:19:47.316 --> 0:19:51.156 a barroom on Wednesday nights after school, and just seeing 0:19:51.236 --> 0:19:55.676 him do that, and recording his first album as a leader, 0:19:55.676 --> 0:19:57.716 and me helping him kind of put that together, and 0:19:57.836 --> 0:20:00.396 us being these brothers at this time where you know, 0:20:00.436 --> 0:20:03.236 we're both trying to put this show together and lead 0:20:03.276 --> 0:20:06.196 this band, which, by the way, is the band that 0:20:06.276 --> 0:20:09.076 he still leads today, Orleans Avenue. That was the band 0:20:09.156 --> 0:20:11.876 that we started in high school before I went to Juilliard. 0:20:11.996 --> 0:20:15.516 So seeing that and experiencing that and saying, you know, 0:20:15.596 --> 0:20:18.876 this is really a special thing. This isn't just a 0:20:18.996 --> 0:20:21.796 part of something I love to do with my dad 0:20:21.876 --> 0:20:25.196 at home. And this isn't just those classical piano lessons 0:20:25.236 --> 0:20:27.876 that I'm using my ears to act like I'm site 0:20:27.956 --> 0:20:29.996 reading box, but I'm really just playing it by ear 0:20:30.156 --> 0:20:32.916 because I didn't know I had perfect pitch. Like, It's 0:20:32.956 --> 0:20:35.276 beyond just this activity or this thing that I do. 0:20:35.796 --> 0:20:40.156 It's this ability to reach people and have a voice 0:20:40.196 --> 0:20:43.116 and have a real impact in the community and in 0:20:43.156 --> 0:20:46.836 the world. So something about the epicness of it struck 0:20:46.876 --> 0:20:50.356 me at that time, seeing those guys who were my 0:20:50.436 --> 0:20:53.436 age doing things that I thought were really cool, and 0:20:53.476 --> 0:20:56.276 then having an Alvin Baptiste in my life who was 0:20:56.996 --> 0:20:59.836 a mentor like no other, who would tell me things 0:21:00.716 --> 0:21:03.956 about his time hanging with John Coltrane or his time 0:21:04.276 --> 0:21:07.756 talking Onette Coleman about the meaning of life and music 0:21:07.796 --> 0:21:10.516 being an allegory, a tonal allegory for life, and how 0:21:10.556 --> 0:21:14.476 that implies free jazz and avant garde music, which he 0:21:14.556 --> 0:21:18.916 played and it was completely alienating to most of the audience, 0:21:18.916 --> 0:21:21.316 but he was so passionate about it, and he would 0:21:21.356 --> 0:21:23.916 just share these records with me and make me do 0:21:24.036 --> 0:21:27.916 things musically that I was uncomfortable, to the point that 0:21:27.956 --> 0:21:30.956 I would grow so dramatically over the course of weeks 0:21:30.996 --> 0:21:33.796 of just being around him that by the time I 0:21:33.876 --> 0:21:36.396 was seventeen, I had reached this point where I had 0:21:36.476 --> 0:21:39.956 felt that was something worth documented. I really didn't know 0:21:39.996 --> 0:21:42.636 how to produce an album, so my father helped me, 0:21:42.676 --> 0:21:44.196 but I knew I wanted to do it, and he 0:21:44.316 --> 0:21:47.116 kind of showed me, and that was really my first production. 0:21:47.196 --> 0:21:49.756 When I was sixteen, I started writing the music for it, 0:21:50.156 --> 0:21:53.956 putting the bands together, doing dates around New Orleans on 0:21:53.996 --> 0:21:57.836 Frenchman Street, playing with all these older musicians who I admired, 0:21:57.956 --> 0:22:00.636 really calling them for the first time, nervous on the phone, 0:22:01.516 --> 0:22:04.996 saying will you come and playing my band and then 0:22:05.036 --> 0:22:06.836 playing the gig and showing them my music and they 0:22:06.916 --> 0:22:08.556 play and they're like, oh, this is great stuff. And 0:22:08.596 --> 0:22:11.516 then I'm playing and Donald Harrison Junior, who's another one 0:22:11.516 --> 0:22:15.116 of my mentors and teachers, playing on the album and really, 0:22:15.236 --> 0:22:17.156 you know, just saying like, yeah, I believe in this. 0:22:17.356 --> 0:22:19.916 I see what you're doing, Alvin Battist, I see what 0:22:19.916 --> 0:22:22.876 you're doing. This is really important. This is the stuff. 0:22:22.916 --> 0:22:26.516 This is the stuff, man, you have it. Do it. Okay, 0:22:26.636 --> 0:22:28.596 I'm interested. What did he push you to do on 0:22:28.636 --> 0:22:31.596 the piano that you said you weren't comfortable doing. It's 0:22:31.636 --> 0:22:34.436 funny it wasn't the piano. It was the clarinet. My 0:22:34.516 --> 0:22:37.116 last year of high school. Yeah, sixteen years old. He 0:22:37.156 --> 0:22:41.876 was a great clarinetist, incredible avant garde jazz, any style 0:22:41.916 --> 0:22:44.996 of music clarinetist, he could do it. He was an 0:22:45.076 --> 0:22:49.396 incredible teacher, philosopher. One day he just said, this year 0:22:49.796 --> 0:22:53.596 you're gonna play the clarinet. And the entire year he 0:22:53.916 --> 0:22:56.876 studied one on one with me, teaching me the clarinet. 0:22:57.876 --> 0:23:01.436 And this is not the saxophone. This is not the 0:23:01.556 --> 0:23:05.036 instrument that you know you consider when you're a sixteen 0:23:05.116 --> 0:23:07.916 year old high school to be the instrument that you 0:23:07.996 --> 0:23:12.276 want to study. But he's obviously one of your heroes. 0:23:12.356 --> 0:23:14.396 So I did it, and it was one of the 0:23:14.436 --> 0:23:19.276 most important things I ever did, because he was trying 0:23:19.316 --> 0:23:25.036 to show me that music and your ability, your talent, 0:23:25.796 --> 0:23:28.876 the innate thing that you have within you can be 0:23:28.916 --> 0:23:33.076