Jonathan Michael Batiste born November 11, [ 2 ] is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, and television personality. Batiste appeared nightly with his band, Stay Human , [ 4 ] as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from to In , Batiste was featured in the documentary film, American Symphony , which records the process of Batiste composing his first symphony.
Jon Batiste was born in Metairie, Louisiana , to a Catholic family. At 17, Batiste released his debut album, Times in New Orleans. He attended St. He then went on to attend the Juilliard School , receiving a Bachelor of Music in and a Master of Music in , both in jazz studies. In , at the age of 20, Batiste made his debut at the Concertgebouw , in Amsterdam, producing and performing his own show. He conducted music clinics, classes, and workshops throughout the Netherlands in inner-city schools and underprivileged neighborhoods.
He was invited to Carnegie Hall to produce and perform in his own show, with six young musicians from the Netherlands. In the following years, Batiste released a number of music projects, including Social Music , which spent over a month at the top of the Billboard and iTunes jazz charts; The Late Show EP with Stay Human ; and a holiday album, Christmas with Jon Batiste Batiste's cover of "St.
Leading up to the album release, he completed a Summer Festival tour across the U. Batiste was cast in the HBO television series Treme , appearing as himself in seasons 2, 3, and 4. He was also cast as T. Hazelton in director Spike Lee's film, Red Hook Summer , [ 20 ] and he composed and performed the Hammond B-3 organ music that was a part of the film score.
He later added Eddie Barbash on alto saxophone and Ibanda Ruhumbika on tuba. The band leads impromptu street performances, which Batiste calls "love riots".
