{"id":40704,"date":"2025-07-11T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/jon-batiste-new-album-interview-inside-big-money\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T12:11:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T12:11:00","slug":"jon-batiste-new-album-interview-inside-big-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/jon-batiste-new-album-interview-inside-big-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Batiste New Album Interview: Inside &#8216;Big Money&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAs a teenage musician, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/jon-batiste\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jon-batiste\" data-tag=\"jon-batiste\">Jon Batiste<\/a> used to call himself \u201ca new-age blues artist.\u201d Now, many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/gucci-mane-jon-batiste-southern-roots-tortured-artist-myth-1234893973\/\">genre-jumps <\/a>later, he\u2019s taking a deeply enjoyable left turn towards roots music on his seventh studio album, Aug. 22\u2019s <em>Big Money<\/em> \u2014 and reminding the world he\u2019s always been a bluesman at heart. \u201cI\u2019m just now making an explicit Americana blues statement,\u201d Batiste says, \u201cbut for me, it\u2019s at the beginning. It\u2019s always the undercurrent. I think about everything that I have done, and it all is in some way a form of homage to the blues.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jon Batiste - BIG MONEY\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PkS2xydpLIg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe album ranges from a full-on Sly Stone homage on the Andra Day duet \u201cLean on My Love\u201d to the title track\u2019s mutated Chess Records R&amp;B to the entirely unexpected rockabilly romp of \u201cPinnacle,\u201d with Batiste playing at least as much guitar as piano throughout the album. As a whole, you could call it Americana, or simply rock &amp; roll \u2014 and Batiste sees the album as part of a recent wave of Black cultural reclamation, a \u201crepatriation process\u201d that also includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/beyonce\/\" id=\"auto-tag_beyonce\" data-tag=\"beyonce\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>\u2018s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/beyonce-cowboy-carter-review-1234996919\/\">Cowboy Carter<\/a><\/em> (which he guested on while he was in the middle of recording this album) and even Ryan Coogler\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/ryan-coogler-sinners-hip-hop-exploitation-1235352338\/\">Sinners<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u200a\u201dAmerican history has oftentimes gone through this pattern of something being born and then it being transferred to anyone else other than Black folks,\u201d Batiste says. \u201cI had the honor to play with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-rolling-stones\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-rolling-stones\" data-tag=\"the-rolling-stones\">the Rolling Stones<\/a>, and I know Paul [McCartney]. I love <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-beatles\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-beatles\" data-tag=\"the-beatles\">the Beatles<\/a>, but how did this thing called rock &amp; roll that was invented by a bunch of black sharecroppers and farmers in the South and then spearheaded by Little Richard and Fats Domino and Chuck Berry end up being [seen as] the result of the British Invasion? Rock &amp; roll became our national music and became the face of our youth culture and national culture \u2014 and a white face at that \u2014 when, self-admittedly, they were playing songs and speaking to the ideas of these Black Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe album was born in spontaneous moments on Batiste\u2019s tour last year, his first real outing as a solo artist. \u201cI would run into people on the road and we\u2019d go into sessions,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery song is a performance. It\u2019s me playing and singing at the same time with the band. All of us in the same room, breathing the same air, creating onto the tape.\u201d Batiste is also launching a tour behind <em>Big Money<\/em>, kicking off Aug. 27 in Kansas City, MO and stopping at 30 venues throughout the country.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFive of the album\u2019s nine tracks feature production by frequent Jay-Z collaborator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/no-id-artium-snoh-aalegra-interview-1096150\/\">No ID.<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cMusic is so monolithic these days,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/no-id\/\" id=\"auto-tag_no-id\" data-tag=\"no-id\">No ID<\/a> says. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to find people who have learned it enough to understand it from multiple perspectives, culturally. Jon is not just a genius-level player, but he\u2019s a highly educated and scientific thinker\u2026. Because I had an opportunity to work with someone so skilled and diverse, we weren\u2019t in a box in terms of what we could do and what audience we could target. Jon is the most fun human I\u2019ve ever worked in the studio with.\u201d It was No ID\u2019s idea to give the album\u2019s final song, \u201cAngels,\u201d an airy reggae feel, and it ended up becoming a callback to the globetrotting sound of Batiste\u2019s last album of originals, 2023\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/jon-batiste-new-album-world-music-radio-lana-del-rey-lil-wayne-newjeans-1234779902\/\">World Music Radio<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Big Money<\/em>\u2018s capitalism-tweaking title track (and first single) offers a broader mission statement for the album, as sung by Batiste and The Womack Sisters, who happen to be Sam Cooke\u2019s granddaughters: \u201cMight as well live for something you can feel\/ Might as well live for something real.\u201d As that lyric suggests, Batiste sees his organic approach as, in part, a rejoinder to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/timbaland-new-artist-tata-ai-1235356185\/\">rise <\/a>of A.I. music: \u200a\u201dI think about this album being a direct statement of the importance of people keeping these traditions alive,\u201d he says. \u201cAI is not going to ever replace this sort of practice. But I do fear that in the short term we\u2019ll forget what this means, and why it\u2019s important, unless artists make statements that are definitively of the essence of communal expression in the traditions of our music, and make them in a way that\u2019s relevant to the contemporary mind and contemporary culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOne of the album\u2019s most striking moments is Batiste\u2019s piano-and-voice living-room duet with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/randy-newman\/\" id=\"auto-tag_randy-newman\" data-tag=\"randy-newman\">Randy Newman<\/a> on\u00a0\u201cLonely Avenue,\u201d a bluesy Doc Pomus-penned ballad that Ray Charles made famous in the Fifties. The song was an unexpected product of the friendship Batiste has struck up recently with Newman, 81, who has faced serious health struggles in recent years \u2014 they initially bonded over their mutual gigs scoring Pixar movies, and soon started talking about New Orleans music and more. Newman hadn\u2019t been singing or playing much, but when Batiste started playing piano at the older man\u2019s house, he suddenly started singing along. On his next visit, Batiste came with recording equipment. \u201cHe was coming alive right before us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBatiste hopes other musicians follow <em>Big Money<\/em>\u2018s roots-conscious approach. \u201cWe have such a profoundly rich cultural inheritance in America that many of us don\u2019t know of, don\u2019t fully embrace, don\u2019t fully understand,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd artists just have to keep making statements that point back to that and counter things that are trying to dilute that or erase it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/jon-batiste-new-album-big-money-interview-1235383304\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a teenage musician, Jon Batiste used to call himself \u201ca new-age blues artist.\u201d Now, many genre-jumps later, he\u2019s taking a deeply enjoyable left&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}