Jon Batiste Reveals His Eclectic Musical Tastes Without Apology

Jon Batiste, the celebrated musician and ex-bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has never been inclined to apologise for his eclectic musical tastes. From punk to classical compositions, the Grammy Award-winning artist embraces everything that resonates with him, declining to participate in what he calls “song shaming”. In a candid interview, Batiste discloses the songs that have shaped his life and artistic journey – spanning from the funk sounds of Clarence Carter to the avant-garde soundscapes of Björk, and even the raw energy 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: Family, Jazz and Initial Exploration

Batiste’s musical roots was established not in concert halls or classrooms, but in his domestic setting, where his father’s vinyl collection offered the musical backdrop to his formative years. Raised in New Orleans, he was introduced to a wide variety of sounds – from the soulful and funky music his dad would play to the thoughtfully selected jazz recordings his Uncle Thomas would provide him with. These were not haphazard picks; they were intentional exposures to the legends of American music, musicians who would serve as the cornerstones of his creative vision. Combined with the worldly music came spiritual education, with sermons and religious recordings embedded in his childhood listening, forming a special combination of secular and spiritual learning.

This early exposure to different musical genres instilled in Batiste a belief that music transcends genre boundaries and commercial classification. His uncle’s carefully chosen recordings – including Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles – proved that musical quality could be discovered across different styles and eras. Rather than being taught to favour one genre over another, young Batiste learned to appreciate the artistry and feeling behind each rendition. This foundational lesson would inform his mature perspective on music, helping him move seamlessly across classical piano, jazz improvisation and contemporary sounds without ever needing to justify his choices to critics or peers.

• Father regularly played funk and soul records at home on a regular basis
• Uncle Thomas sent jazz recordings and religious sermons
• Early influences encompassed Armstrong, Peterson and Charles
• Secular and spiritual music shaped his artistic worldview

From Blockbuster Bins to Grammy Triumph

Before Jon Batiste became an Grammy-award-winning acclaimed musician and bandleader for The Late Show, he was a young person searching through discount bins at Blockbuster Video, looking for pre-owned CDs that spoke to his diverse musical taste. These weren’t impulse purchases influenced by radio play or chart positions; they were deliberate acquisitions of albums that represented artistic excellence throughout vastly different musical genres. The records he chose during this formative period – carefully selected from bargain bins – would turn out to be remarkably prescient indicators of the varied musical taste he would support across his professional life. What might have seemed like an distinctive mix of acquisitions to fellow customers truly demonstrated a teenager already assured in his own taste and resistant to conforming to narrow genre expectations.

This stretch of musical discovery, undertaken in the unremarkable environment of a video rental store’s clearance section, became essential to Batiste’s artistic development. Rather than passively consuming whatever was popular or easily accessible, he intentionally searched for particular musicians and albums, displaying an creative self-reliance that would characterise his relationship with music across his lifetime. The Blockbuster bins transformed into his own education, where he could try out different sounds and construct a base of musical understanding that spanned soul, experimental pop, hip-hop and R&B. These first buys weren’t just entertainment; they constituted investments in understanding the breadth and depth of modern music, knowledge that would inform every musical decision he would make in the future.

The Records Which Launched It All

The four records Batiste obtained in this formative period demonstrate the refined musical sensibilities of a young listener already unafraid to mix genres and styles. Michael Jackson’s Dangerous exemplified the architectural brilliance of pop music, whilst Björk’s Vespertine presented experimental production and avant-garde artistic approaches. Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate represented the artistic heights of neo-soul and conscious hip-hop respectively. Together, these four albums created a personal canon that championed innovation, emotional depth and musical craftsmanship – values that continue to be central to Batiste’s artistic identity and his refusal to apologise for the range of his musical tastes.

Dismissing Musical Prejudice: Why Punk Belongs Alongside Jazz

Batiste’s most bold musical confession comes in his unapologetic embrace of punk music, specifically naming Amyl and the Sniffers as one of his favourite bands. Rather than consigning punk to a shameful indulgence or rejecting it as creatively second-rate, he situates punk rock alongside the experimental jazz that has defined much of his working life. This resistance to what he calls genre snobbery represents a core belief system: that musical merit cannot be judged by categorical divisions or critical hierarchies. For Batiste, the matter is not whether a song fits within conventional definitions of sophistication, but whether it possesses authentic creative merit and emotional resonance.

The connection Batiste draws between punk and jazz demonstrates remarkably revealing. Both genres, he proposes, exhibit an essential kinetic energy and spirit of experimentation that surpasses their surface differences. Punk’s unpolished intensity and jazz’s adaptive sophistication both require skilled execution, bold artistic choices and an unwillingness to conform to industry standards. This observation undermines the false dichotomy that often presents “serious” classical or jazz musicians as intrinsically more accomplished to those who work within rock or punk traditions. Batiste’s career has repeatedly shown that artistic quality exists beyond genre boundaries, and that a well-versed music appreciator identifies quality wherever it manifests, regardless of whether it appears on a concert hall stage or a packed underground space.

• Punk music demonstrates dynamic force comparable to avant-garde jazz innovation
• Style classifications should not dictate artistic credibility or audience appreciation
• Artistic quality stems from integrity and emotional authenticity, not genre labelling

The Songs That Defined a Life

Batiste’s musical journey reveals how particular pieces shape the fabric of our identities, acting as markers of significant turning points and emotional touchstones. His earliest musical memories trace back to his father playing Clarence Carter’s Strokin’, a song whose explicit lyrics he absorbed at just eight years old—a crucial exposure to music’s ability to convey mature themes and desires. These foundational influences were complemented by his Uncle Thomas, who provided him with recordings of jazz legends alongside spiritual sermons, establishing a distinctive learning environment where worldly and spiritual compositions functioned as equally valid manifestations of lived reality and understanding.

The records Batiste acquired as a young collector—Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Björk’s Vespertine, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate—reflect deliberate choices that formed his artistic sensibility. These selections showcase an instinctive inclination toward boundary-pushing artists who resist easy categorisation. Each album embodies a different musical universe, yet collectively they expose a listener uninterested in genre purity or mainstream accessibility. By purchasing these specific records rather than safer, more mainstream selections, Batiste was already asserting his commitment to authentic musicianship and artistic integrity.

Sacred Moments and Emotional Anchors

Perhaps no other song holds deeper significance for Batiste than When the Saints Go Marching In, a classic New Orleans standard that frames his personal philosophy. He played this song at his grandmother’s service, an moment he credits with profoundly shifting his understanding of music’s spiritual power. The act of playing this specific song in that setting—in Louisiana, where his grandmother was laid to rest near Mahalia Jackson—transformed it from a cultural landmark into a profoundly personal spiritual foundation. He has chosen it as the song he wants performed at his own service, establishing a full-circle narrative of intergenerational 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 looking back on life as its final witness—a reflection about mortality and solitude that he has experienced viscerally whilst playing music in New York subway stations at three in the morning. The late-night city setting—the city coming to rest—provides the optimal backdrop for confronting the piece’s profound weight. These affective touchstones demonstrate how Batiste uses music not merely as entertainment but as a means of engaging with life’s deepest experiences and innermost feelings.

The Musical Selection That Captures the Essence of Jon Batiste

Batiste’s artistic path reveals a listener who resists being restricted to genre boundaries or industry standards. From the funky rhythms of Clarence Carter that accompanied his early years to the experimental intensity of punk rock, his musical preferences span decades and styles with unapologetic enthusiasm. What develops is not a random collection of disparate influences but rather a coherent artistic philosophy that prioritises emotional authenticity and sonic innovation above market appeal. Whether discovering records in Blockbuster’s bargain bins or choosing songs for his morning alarm, Batiste approaches music with the inquisitiveness of someone who recognises that meaningful creative work transcends categorical limitations and connects with the shared human condition.