Jon Batiste Reveals His Eclectic Musical Tastes Without Apology

Jon Batiste, the renowned musician and ex-bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has never been inclined to apologise for his diverse musical preferences. From punk rock to classical music, the Grammy Award-winning artist champions everything that moves him, refusing to engage in what he calls “song shaming”. In a candid interview, Batiste shares the songs that have shaped his life and creative path – ranging from the funk sounds of Clarence Carter to the experimental soundscapes of Björk, and even the raw power of Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. His playlist tells the story of a musician unafraid to celebrate the complete range of music, whether it’s a Bach masterpiece or a track he’d rather keep secret from his peers.

The Formative Years: Jazz, Family and Early Exploration

Batiste’s musical foundation was formed not in performance venues or formal institutions, but in his family home, where his father’s music library supplied the musical backdrop to his formative years. Growing up in New Orleans, he was exposed to a wide variety of genres – from the funk and soul records his dad would play to the thoughtfully selected jazz recordings his Uncle Thomas would provide him with. These weren’t arbitrary choices; they were purposeful introductions to the greats of American musical tradition, artists who would become the foundations of his creative vision. Combined with the secular music came sacred learning, with spiritual teachings and sacred music woven into his formative musical exposure, forming a distinctive fusion of material and religious understanding.

This early exposure to diverse musical traditions instilled in Batiste a sense that music goes beyond genre boundaries and commercial labelling. His uncle’s carefully chosen recordings – showcasing Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles – showed that musical mastery could be discovered across different styles and eras. Rather than being encouraged to favour one genre over another, young Batiste came to appreciate the artistry and feeling behind each performance. This foundational lesson would become central to his adult approach to music, enabling him to move fluidly between classical piano, jazz improvisation and contemporary sounds without ever feeling obliged to justify his choices to critics or peers.

• Father regularly played soul and funk records at home regularly
• Uncle Thomas would send religious and jazz sermons
• Early influences encompassed Armstrong, Peterson and Ray Charles
• Spiritual and secular music shaped his artistic worldview

From Blockbuster Bins to Grammy Glory

Before Jon Batiste grew into an acclaimed Grammy-winning bandleader and musician for The Late Show, he was a teenager hunting through discount bins at Blockbuster Video, searching for used CDs that resonated with his eclectic ear. These weren’t impulse purchases driven by radio play or chart positions; they were carefully chosen purchases of records embodying musical quality across wildly different musical genres. The records he chose during this formative period – carefully selected from discount bins – would prove to be remarkably prescient indicators of the varied musical taste he would support across his career. What could have appeared as an unusual combination of acquisitions to fellow customers actually reflected a young musician already confident in his personal preferences and uninterested in conforming to restrictive genre conventions.

This period of discovering music, undertaken in the uninspiring setting of a video rental store’s clearance section, proved invaluable to Batiste’s musical evolution. Rather than passively consuming whatever enjoyed popularity or easily accessible, he intentionally searched for specific artists and albums, demonstrating an intellectual autonomy that would characterise his approach to music throughout his life. The Blockbuster bins transformed into his own education, where he could try out various musical styles and construct a grounding in music that covered soul, experimental pop, hip-hop and R&B. These initial acquisitions weren’t merely entertainment; they were investments in understanding the full spectrum of modern music, lessons that would shape every musical decision he would take in the future.

The Records That Began Everything

The four records Batiste obtained during this pivotal time demonstrate the sophisticated musical taste of a youthful music enthusiast unafraid to blend different genres and styles. Michael Jackson’s Dangerous exemplified the architectural brilliance of pop music, whilst Björk’s Vespertine offered experimental production and avant-garde sensibilities. Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate embodied the creative pinnacle of neo-soul and conscious hip-hop respectively. Together, these four albums created a personal musical canon that celebrated innovation, emotional depth and musical craftsmanship – principles that remain central to Batiste’s artistic identity and his refusal to apologise for the breadth of his musical interests.

Dismissing Musical Snobbery: Why Punk Should Be Recognized Alongside Jazz

Batiste’s most striking musical declaration comes in his unapologetic embrace of punk rock, specifically citing Amyl and the Sniffers as one of his go-to acts. Rather than treating the style to a secret enjoyment or rejecting it as creatively second-rate, he situates punk rock next to the progressive jazz that has shaped his artistic trajectory. This refusal to engage what he calls musical gatekeeping embodies a fundamental philosophical stance: that musical merit cannot be assessed through genre boundaries or critical hierarchies. For Batiste, the matter is not whether a piece adheres to prescribed categories of sophistication, but whether it exhibits true artistic authenticity and emotional depth.

The link Batiste establishes between punk and jazz demonstrates especially insightful. Both genres, he proposes, exhibit an essential kinetic energy and spirit of experimentation that goes beyond their superficial distinctions. Punk’s unpolished intensity and jazz’s adaptive sophistication both necessitate instrumental proficiency, creative risk-taking and an resistance to conformity to commercial expectations. This perspective questions the misleading division that often casts “serious” classical or jazz musicians as fundamentally better to those who participate in rock or punk traditions. Batiste’s career has continually proved that sonic achievement exists beyond genre boundaries, and that a truly educated listener acknowledges quality wherever it manifests, independent of whether it appears on a performance venue stage or a crowded punk club.

• Punk music exhibits kinetic energy comparable to avant-garde jazz innovation
• Musical categories must not determine creative legitimacy or audience appreciation
• Artistic quality stems from genuine emotion and artistic honesty, not stylistic categorisation

The Melodies That Influenced a Journey

Batiste’s musical journey reveals how particular pieces become woven into the fabric of our identities, serving as markers of significant turning points and emotional touchstones. His earliest musical memories stem from his father playing Clarence Carter’s Strokin’, a song whose explicit lyrics he absorbed at just eight years old—a formative introduction to music’s ability to communicate adult experiences and desires. These foundational influences were complemented by his Uncle Thomas, who sent him albums by jazz legends alongside spiritual sermons, establishing a unique educational framework where worldly and spiritual compositions coexisted as equally valid manifestations of lived reality and understanding.

The records Batiste purchased as a developing enthusiast—Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Björk’s Vespertine, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate—represent deliberate choices that influenced his artistic sensibility. These selections demonstrate an instinctive gravitation towards artists who push boundaries who resist easy categorisation. Each album represents a different musical universe, yet collectively they illustrate a listener uninterested in genre purity or mainstream accessibility. By selecting these particular albums rather than safer, more mainstream selections, Batiste was establishing his commitment to musical authenticity and artistic integrity.

Sacred Moments and Emotional Touchstones

Perhaps no other song holds deeper significance for Batiste than When the Saints Go Marching In, a traditional New Orleans standard that bookends his life philosophy. He played this song at his grandmother’s funeral, an moment he credits with fundamentally changing his understanding of the spiritual power of music. The act of performing this specific song in that context—in Louisiana, where his grandmother was laid to rest near Mahalia Jackson—transformed it from a cultural touchstone into a profoundly personal spiritual anchor. He has selected it as the song he wants performed at his own service, creating a full-circle narrative of generational connection and musical legacy.

Bach’s Air on the G String represents a different but equally profound emotional landscape for Batiste. He describes the piece as evoking the sensation of contemplating life as its last witness—a meditation on mortality and solitude that he has undergone profoundly whilst playing music in New York underground stations at three in the morning. The late-night urban setting—the city gradually quieting—provides the optimal backdrop for confronting the piece’s profound weight. These affective touchstones show how Batiste uses music not merely as entertainment but as a means of working through life’s most significant moments and innermost feelings.

The Musical Selection That Characterises Jon Batiste

Batiste’s musical trajectory reveals a listener who refuses to be confined by genre boundaries or critical expectations. From the funk grooves of Clarence Carter that soundtracked his childhood to the avant-garde energy of punk rock, his tastes cover multiple eras and genres with unapologetic enthusiasm. What emerges is not a haphazard mix of disparate influences but rather a unified creative vision that values emotional authenticity and sonic innovation above commercial viability. Whether finding albums in Blockbuster’s bargain bins or selecting tracks for his morning alarm, Batiste engages with music with the inquisitiveness of someone who recognises that great art goes beyond genre boundaries and connects with the human experience.