Jon Batiste is a singer, songwriter, and overall, just a musician's musician. The Louisiana native has worked with some of the biggest in the biz as well from Beyonce to Lana Del Rey, Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, and more. However, what the bandleader of Stay Human is also really good at is playing the piano. After all, he did go to school at the world-renowned institution known as Juilliard School. The reason we bring this up is because Jon Batiste is deploying this talent onto a brand-new endeavor, Beethoven Blues. Just like the title suggests, he's putting a blues and jazz spin on multiple iconic compositions by the German-born icon.
So why did Batiste decide to remake such historic pieces of art? To put it simply, they were "due for an update." He explains further with The Hollywood Reporter, "Jazz music has a lot of spontaneous composition, and early classical music also had a lot of spontaneous composition, yet its contemporary reality is so far away from that that you would imagine that jazz and classical music could never come together. And I find it to be a great thing that you can update it if you have the language and the ability and the craft to put them together. So, that’s why I thought, why not do it?" In our opinion, he would have made Beethoven pretty proud, and this looks to be just the first full piano/instrumental album for now. Hopefully, we get to hear him transform other historical pieces. But check out Beethoven Blues with the links below and listen to a master at work.
Beethoven Blues - Jon Batiste
Beethoven Blues Tracklist:
- Für Elise - Batiste
- Symphony No. 5 Stomp
- Moonlight Sonata Blues
- Dusklight Movement
- 7th Symphony Elegy
- American Symphony Theme
- Ode To Joyful
- 5th Symphony In Congo Square
- Waldstein Wabble
- Life Of Ludwig
- Für Elise - Reverie