The Batiste Family

We have freakish weather. Snow, hail, lighting, and more snow on the way. But Mary’s church has opened up to allow houseless people to spend the night there, and the city has opened a few other emergency shelters for tonight. 

If you’re like me, you probably feel out of touch with popular culture, don’t pay much attention to the various award shows. But this year a 35-year-old named Jon Batiste took home five Grammies, a BAFTA, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and every trophy and gee-gaw you can think of. So I Googled him and was surprised to learn he was born in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans where I lived in 1968. Batiste, I said to myself, oh yeah. There’s a whole family of musicians called the Batistes in New Orleans. One of them was a good friend of mine when we were both living in the French Quarter in 1969. I was recently divorced and he was married and worried about how he was going to support a family. He played a clarinet wherever he could get a gig, and we used to walk by the river and talk. We both dreamed of becoming college professors, which seemed crazy impossible at the time, since we both had no money. Alvin Batiste. Googled him, and turns out he's dead now, but he was Jon’s uncle, and he made a few albums before he died.

That started me on a Batiste binge. Alvin, Jon, Youtubes. Videos. Listening, I can almost smell New Orleans coffee, red beans and rice, and Jax Beer. I love their voices, that soft accent, the wonderful rhythm of New Orleans speech. Listen for yourself if you're interested.

Jon made an 8-minute video last year on the ideas behind an album called We Are, the one that just won him one of those Grammy Awards. Jon sounds just like his uncle (who I lost touch with over the years; Google tells me he did become a college professor). Listening to Jon Batiste, I couldn't tell which voice I was hearing: his, or his uncle's? and was it 2022, or 1969? It was like listening in two different universes five decades apart. Jon plays every genre of music, and I love his instrumental pieces. According to several articles and interviews, he’s working on a symphony.