Jon Batiste | News | INFOTEXT - Jon Batiste "World Music Radio"

 1. Hello, Billy Bob
2. Raindance (ft. Native Soul)
3. Be Who You Are (ft. J.I.D, NewJeans, Camilo)
4. Worship
5. My Heart (ft. Rita Payés)
6. Drink Water (ft. Jon Bellion, Fireboy DML)
7. Calling Your Name
8. Clair De Lune (ft. Kenny G)
9. Butterfly
10. 17th Ward Prelude
11. Uneasy (ft. Lil Wayne)
12. CALL NOW (504–305–8269) (ft. Michael Batiste)
13. Chassol
14. BOOM FOR REAL
15. MOVEMENT 18’ (Heroes)
16. Master Power
17. Running Away (ft. Leigh-Anne)
18. Goodbye, Billy Bob
19. White Space
20. Wherever You Are

BONUS TRACK:
21. Life Lesson (ft. Lana Del Rey) 

Ab dem 18. August kann man es einschalten, das „World Music Radio“. Zu finden ist es allerdings nicht auf der Radioskala, denn unter dem Titel bringt Multitalent Jon Batiste sein mit Neugier erwartetes Nachfolgealbum zum spektakulären Vorgänger „We Are“ heraus. Als das Album im März 2021 zu überwältigendem Kritikerlob veröffentlicht wurde, konnte noch keiner ahnen, dass es wenig später für elf Grammys in sieben Kategorien nominiert werden würde, eine Premiere in der Grammy-Geschichte. Anschließend gewann Batiste fünf dieser Grammys, darunter den für das Album des Jahres.

In dieser turbulenten Phase seines Lebens, in der zusätzlich auch noch seine Partnerin ernsthaft erkrankte, nahm sich Batiste eine Auszeit vom Musikgeschäft, beendete seinen siebenjährigen Posten als Bandleader der „Late Show with Stephen Colbert“ auf CBS-TV, in der er auch als charismatischer Spaßvogel beliebt geworden war, und ging mit seiner Partnerin auf Reisen.

Eine Weltreise wird es nicht gewesen sein, aber trotzdem landete Batiste danach mit seinem „World Music Radio“ betitelten neuen Albumprojekt wieder im Studio. Für den zunächst als Jazzpianist vielfach preisgekrönten Musiker ist es das bisher Pop-orientierteste Album geworden. Als Gäste lud er u.a. Jon Bellion, Lil Wayne, Lana Del Rey, Kenny G, Fireboy Dml, J.I.D, Camilo und Newjeans dazu ein.

„World Music Radio“ ist eine quirlige, überbordende Mischung aus Souls und Sounds aller musikalischer Richtungen und Winkel der Welt. Batiste: „Viel zu viel Musik versucht sich heutzutage in eine Schublade oder ein Genre einzufügen. Auf meiner Reise lade ich die Zuhörer ein, all das loszulassen. Ich habe mich in dieser Hinsicht immer schon wie ein Außerirdischer gefühlt, mit dem Begriff „Genre“ hatte ich schon immer Probleme. Ich habe dieses Album mit einem Gefühl der totalen Befreiung in Angriff genommen, wie ich es noch nie zuvor gespürt habe."

Die erste Single “Calling Your Name” hier anhören:

WMR is definitively a concept album that takes place in the interstellar regions of the universe.  The listener is led through the album by an interstellar traveling griot named Billy Bob Bo Bob, who takes you sonically all around the world at the speed of light. 

At its core, we are reexamining and redefining the term “world music” as it exists in the popular music space. 

World music and popular music continue to become more and more synonymous with each other and that synthesis of cultures is something that has inspired my work for the last decade or more.

So much of music today tries to fit neatly into a box or a genre and on this journey I’m inviting listeners to let all that go. I have always felt like an alien in this regard—genre has always felt problematic to me. For instance, world music as a term is very harmful and marginalizing in many ways. At the same time, in using it as a prompt, it bears with it the opportunity to explore a plurality and diversity of world cultures and connect those dots in meaningful and compelling new ways.

But WMR is definitively NOT a world music album; it is a popular music album with world music as the springboard.

I created this album with a feeling of liberation in my life and a renewed sense of exploration of my personhood, my craft and of the world around me unlike anything I had ever felt before. Having been tethered mostly to New York City for the better part of seven years prior to making this album, breaking free from the regimented schedule of late-night television was just one of many upheavals in my life at the time. Many personal hardships, my marriage to my longtime partner coinciding with her near-fatal battle with leukemia, several career milestones and a range of other life-altering transitions reached a near breaking point and ultimately led me to shut away from the world prior to making this album. In the aftermath of all this there was a stillness—a feeling of ultimate oneness with everyone in the world and with all of our collective ancestors. Traveling with my wife, leaning into the culturally diverse group of friends and family that make up my inner circle birthed the foundations for what is now WMR—much of which was recorded in transit, hotel rooms, basements and on smartphones either abroad or near big bodies of water.

A range of collaborations in locations all across the globe made this vision a reality.

There was a lot of joy in making this and it definitely translates to the listening experience – and now to you.

Jon Batiste is one of history’s most brilliant, prolific, and accomplished musicians. Batiste studied and received both a B.A. and M.F.A. at the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York City. From 2015 until 2022, Batiste served as the bandleader and musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. Most recently, Jon was awarded an Emmy in the category of “Outstanding Open/Tease” for his 2022 NCAA March Madness piece. In 2018, he received a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots, and in 2020, he received two Grammy nods for the albums: CHRONOLOGY OF A DREAM: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD and MEDITATIONS (with Cory Wong). In 2020, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the Disney/Pixar film SOUL, an honor he shared with fellow composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Jon’s work on SOUL also earned him a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a NAACP Image Award and a Critic’s Choice Award. He is the second black composer in history, after legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock, to win an Academy Award for composition. Batiste’s latest studio album, WE ARE, was released in March 2021 to overwhelming critical acclaim. Subsequently, he was nominated for eleven Grammys across seven different categories, a first in Grammy history. He went on to win five of those Grammys, including Album of the Year.

 

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