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Jon Batiste’s Love Riot
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Success came quickly to multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste, but that’s not to say it didn’t come without a lot of hard work. Born in Kenner, Louisiana, he first developed a taste for jazz as a child performing in the percussion section of his family band. Come age 11, he swapped snare drums for the piano and just after his seventeenth birthday, he released his first album. Since then, he’s gone on to record six more jazz-centric studio albums, performed twice at Carnegie Hall—as well as alongside Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Questlove, and more—and is the only jazz musician to ever receive the Movado Future Legend Award. Earlier this year he and his “Stay Human” band were announced as the house musicians for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and he starred in Bruce Weber’s epic CR 7 shoot and film alongside Taraji P. Henson, Jussie Smollet, and Michael Beasley. Click here to see Batiste play, and scroll down to read about his Love Riot initiative—a spontaneous act which aims to unite people through the power of music. Today also happens to be his 29th birthday, so join us in raising a toast to the reigning King of Jazz!
“We created Love Riots. They first began in the subways and streets of NYC. Since then, we’ve played everywhere from juvenile detention centers to the deserts of Doha to pediatric cancer hospitals and beyond. A small group, unannounced, spontaneous, mobile. But then it grows. It’s kinetic. The energy of people in a place where they just continue to build upon one another, the crowd gets bigger and then we start moving. First it was nameless, my band and I playing outside, encouraging people to commune, strangers, who didn’t know each other. But then it needed a name. Love Riots.
The energy is an outward expression and a release of joy and adrenaline. It’s cathartic. It’s an eruption. Unpredictable. The energy is felt and you can see the crowd celebrating from far away. When we do it, there’s no organizational principle, except follow the crowd, the pied pipers are playing.
It’s the experience of people coming together in a way that God intended. In the chaos, there can be a kind of intimacy. To put down all guards. To love more in the moment. You’re right next to somebody. You can never fully know what it’s like to be that other person, and there will never be another you. But you can get lost all together in a trance with the music.
I want people to love better. I want my music to be the soundtrack of a world where there’s a lot more love and kindness for fellow humans. Music can change the heart and mind, and alter the whole spiritual makeup of someone. When we play, no one is excluded—that’s what a Love Riot is at its highest peak. No one knows what’s about to happen when the music stops. But afterward, when it’s over, people usually linger, knowing it just made them more.”
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createdAt:Tue, 27 Jun 2017 16:12:54 +0000
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