Late show star Jon Batiste releases new live jazz trio album
The Louisiana pianist has become a household name in the USA
Louisiana-born pianist Jon Batiste is releasing a new live album recorded at the famous Village Vanguard nightclub in Manhattan. In recent years, Batiste has become a TV star in the States as the house band leader for Stephen Colbert’s Late Show on CBS every night, recorded in New York City.
Batiste says this album was a chance to go back to his jazz routes and channel some of the great players like Monk, Coltrane and trumpeter Roy Hargrove - his friend who passed away just days before the recording sessions last year. It features his trio with drummer Joe Saylor and bassist Phil Kuehn along with guest vocalist Racheal Price on one track.
The recording has no edits or retakes because he says it’s a “snapshot of live art” - he says “I made these songs as vehicles for exploration, to be dissected and put back together, live in action, never to be played the same way twice. With ‘mistakes’ and all.”
Already the album, titled ‘Anatomy of Angels’ is at number one on the US iTunes Jazz charts. Download and streaming link HERE.