The beauty of jazz is that it can accommodate all styles. You can take jazz and put rock in it, and it’s still jazz. Jon Batiste Read Quote
Earliest musical memory is probably being scared stiff with my family’s band as a youngster on stage playing the conga drums. Jon Batiste Read Quote
I’m from New Orleans, which is all about direct engagement out in the street with all the parades and Mardi Gras Indians and jazz funerals. I’m trying to take that and put it into my generation, a group that doesn’t have enough joy and celebration in their lives. Jon Batiste Read Quote
I have seven uncles, and my dad played bass, they had a band together, that was the family band. And of course as the cousins got older, including myself, we joined a family band. All the cousins played. That’s my heritage. Jon Batiste Read Quote
There’s a tradition – in New Orleans it still exists – where people play in the street. People play outside of the venues. Food, music, and that cultural exchange, it happens anywhere. Jon Batiste Read Quote
My whole way of looking at entertainment and audience engagement – and my ability to go from one genre to another – comes from my experience in New Orleans. Jon Batiste Read Quote
My sense of style is influenced by how I feel. I want to express myself because they see you before they hear you. You want to come on stage, and what you look like should represent the song you are playing or the set you are about to play or the message in your music. Jon Batiste Read Quote
Jazz has a tradition that has enriched the culture in America. The intellectualism of it does nothing but make you think on a higher level and make you a better person if you engage in the music and let it do what it does when it is played at its highest level. Jon Batiste Read Quote
