“BOY HOOD” (PDF) from the Jon Batiste album, WE ARE

Raised among musical giants, New Orleans pianist Jon Batiste had performed in the family band since before he was a teenager. He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and received his music degree from The Juilliard School in New York City, where he also led his parade band Stay Human. Batiste’s further study of European classical music allowed the pianist to share New Orleans culture with the world through jazz, funk, and hip hop traditions. It would eventually lead him to score music for Disney film and national television, as well as win the Grammy award for Album of the Year for his 2021 release, WE ARE.

“BOY HOOD” features two other New Orleans globetrotters: Trombone Shorty - a NOCCA classmate whose band, Orleans Avenue, included Batiste on its 2005 album, Orleans & Claiborne - and Grammy award-winning gospel pianist PJ Morton.

Here is a YouTube video of Jon Batiste on a return trip to NOCCA with Trombone Shorty:

Recommended reading: Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad. Published by Penguin Random House.