Jon Batiste Can’t Stop Thinking About Beethoven
The New York Times
Batiste’s latest album is a return to his classical music roots — on his terms. Hear him improvise on some of Beethoven’s classics.
Long before Jon Batiste was a bandleader, television personality and Grammy- and Academy Award-winning artist, he was a classical piano student.
As an adolescent in Metairie, La., he spent Saturday mornings at the home of his teacher, known as Miss Shirley, working on scales and arpeggios, and music by Bach and Debussy.
“I was the kind of student that would leave the books in the foyer to sit there until next week’s lesson,” Batiste said. “No practice at home. The beauty of the music didn’t dawn on me until later.”
Now Batiste, 38, is returning to his classical roots with an album called “Beethoven Blues.” It features his improvisations on masterpieces like “Für Elise” and the Fifth Symphony, as well as Beethoven-inspired compositions like “Dusklight Movement” and “Life of Ludwig.”
For Batiste, who recorded the album in a day and a half at his home in Brooklyn, the project is personal. It brings him back to the Maple Leaf Bar and other stages in New Orleans, where, as a teenager, he began fusing Chopin nocturnes and Bach inventions with his own music.
