WORLD MUSIC RADIO

After receiving several awards (including the Oscar) for his work co-writing the score for the animated film, "Soul" and winning the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year in 2022 (with a total of five wins) for his album, "We Are", Jon Batiste's career is on a major roll. He has just recently given up his night job as the musical director on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" (which he held for seven years) in order to devote more time for his own music projects. 

Batiste, who comes from a distinguished musical family in the New Orleans area, began as a child playing percussion and drums with his family's jazz outfit, the Batiste Brothers Band before later switching to the piano. He studied classical piano throughout his teenage years but went on to attend Juilliard where he received a Bachelor of Music in jazz studies. Since he finished school, Batiste has had an impressive career that began teaching classes and workshops throughout the Netherlands, recording several jazz albums and even doing some acting, appearing in the HBO series, "Treme" and the Spike Lee films, "Red Hook Summer" and "Da Sweet Blood of Jesus".

With his latest album, "World Music Radio", Batiste ventures into global music in an unconventional way. The collection is a concept album with a DJ named "Billy Bob Bo" who is playing songs on an intergalactic radio station, transmitting an eclectic mixture of musical sounds for a truly otherworldly audience. There is also an interesting mix of collaborators which includes Spanish singer, Rita Payés; the psychedelic rap of Lil Wayne; Leigh-Anne of the English girl group, Little Mix; the K-pop group, NewJeans; the dream-pop goddess, Lana Del Rey and the classic cool sax of Kenny G.