“ We Are is a message of love for humanity, of humble reverence for our past, and of a hopeful future, in which we are the ones who can save us.
#Jon batiste i need you full
Now is the time to show the world my full artistry. “But there’s so much more to know about me.
“I’m publicly known for some things already,” says Batiste. Collaborators include POMO (Anderson.Paak), Ricky Reed (Lizzo), and Jahaan Sweet ( Drake, Eminem), and others. There are guest appearances on the album by a remarkable cast including Mavis Staples, Quincy Jones, Zadie Smith, PJ Morton, Trombone Shorty, St Augustine Marching 100, Jon’s father Michael Batiste, his grandfather David Gauthier and many others. Batiste’s music, and his hands, were incorporated into the animation about a teacher who dreams of being a jazz pianist. We Are was recorded in New York, Los Angeles and in his native New Orleans, in between sessions for Disney/Pixar’s 2020 hit film Soul. We Are, which was completed in the middle of the first wave of the pandemic, is described as a combination of “the consciousness of Marvin Gaye, the grounded optimism of Stevie Wonder, the iconoclasm of Thelonious Monk and the swagger of Mannie Fresh.”īatiste wrote and planned much of the album in a period of roughly a week, from his dressing room at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he serves as musical director and bandleader. The clip was given its broadcast premiere today by MTV Live, BET Soul, and mtvU. McWilliams’ choreography embraces swing and Harlem’s own Lindy Hop dance. Batiste stars in the video as both leading man and bandleader, with references to Little Richard, James Brown, and the dances of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, plus hints of New Wave film.