60 Minutes Transcript: Jon Batiste
We have met a lot of musicians over the years, but few as original or as gifted as Jon Batiste. He has big ideas and a bigger laugh. You may know he was the bandleader on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert, but that was just one stop on his creative journey. At 39, he's a virtuoso, who loves to play the child-like melodica. He's intent on breaking down musical silos, blending Beethoven with blues, for example, to make something new. Jazz, classical, folk, pop – really any sounds that fire his imagination – get woven into what he calls "social music." It draws from every era and every corner
At the center of it all, the maestro of the evening: singer, composer and musical dynamo, Jon Batiste.
Bill Whitaker: So what would you call this, when everybody came together?
Batiste dreamed up love riots as a student at Juilliard, the famed performing arts school. The subway became a testing ground for his vision of uniting people through music.
Jon Batiste: I love seeing how different songs strike a chord with different people. And that's a beautiful thing, when you can bring somebody that kind of unexpected feeling of-- of belonging, feeling like they're not alone in the world.
Jon Batiste: I just enjoy the idea of being this vessel that unites people, brings people together, against all odds. That's a form of faith, for me.
We joined Jon Batiste at a temple to that faith: Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village.
A who's who of artists have passed through here: Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Taylor Swift.
As his fingers fly over the keys, music takes human form. Its tension and joy flow through his body and play across his face. At the keyboard he seemed lost in a trance.
We went to the control room. Only listening to the playback, did he really hear what he had created…
Jon Batiste: Yeah, when I'm playin' it, I'm feelin' it. I want to stay in a certain flow and feeling.
Jon Batiste: And you go back to the first hymn that they found in Syria or you know, you go to the-- the first drums or the cymbals in-- in Neolithic China or you go–
Dive deeper
- We have met a lot of musicians over the years, but few as original or as gifted as Jon Batiste. He has big ideas and a bigger laugh. You may know he was the bandleader on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert, but that was just one stop on h
- At the center of it all, the maestro of the evening: singer, composer and musical dynamo, Jon Batiste.
- Bill Whitaker: So what would you call this, when everybody came together?
- Batiste dreamed up love riots as a student at Juilliard, the famed performing arts school. The subway became a testing ground for his vision of uniting people through music.
- Jon Batiste: I love seeing how different songs strike a chord with different people. And that's a beautiful thing, when you can bring somebody that kind of unexpected feeling of-- of belonging, feeling like they're not alone in the world.