Jon Batiste Reveals His Eclectic Musical Tastes Without Apology

Jon Batiste, the acclaimed musician and former bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has never been one to apologise for his eclectic musical tastes. From punk rock to classical compositions, the Grammy-winning artist embraces everything that resonates with him, refusing to engage in what he calls “musical shaming”. In a candid interview, Batiste reveals the songs that have influenced 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 of champion the full spectrum of music, whether it’s a Bach masterpiece or a track he’d rather keep secret from his peers.

The Developmental Years: Family, Jazz and Early Exploration

Batiste’s musical roots was laid not in performance venues or formal institutions, but in his domestic setting, where his father’s record collection supplied the audio landscape to his childhood. Growing up in New Orleans, he was introduced to a remarkable range of sounds – from the soulful and funky music his dad would put on to the carefully curated jazz recordings his Uncle Thomas would provide him with. These weren’t random selections; they were deliberate introductions to the legends of American musical tradition, musicians who would serve as the cornerstones of his musical approach. Complementing the worldly music came sacred learning, with sermons and religious recordings integrated into his formative musical exposure, producing a distinctive fusion of material and religious understanding.

This early exposure to diverse musical traditions instilled in Batiste a conviction that music transcends genre boundaries and commercial labelling. His uncle’s carefully chosen recordings – including Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles – demonstrated that that musical excellence could be found across different styles and eras. Rather than being taught to favour one genre over another, young Batiste came to appreciate the craft and emotion behind each piece. This core principle would shape his mature perspective on music, enabling him to move seamlessly across classical piano, jazz improvisation and contemporary sounds without ever feeling obliged to justify his choices to critics or peers.

• Father played funk and soul records at home on a regular basis
• Uncle Thomas would send religious and jazz sermons
• Formative influences encompassed Armstrong, Peterson and Charles
• Secular and spiritual music informed his creative perspective

From Blockbuster Dumpsters to Grammy Triumph

Before Jon Batiste became an acclaimed Grammy-winning musician and bandleader for The Late Show, he was a teenager hunting through discount bins at Blockbuster Video, searching for used CDs that spoke to his eclectic ear. These were not spontaneous buys driven by chart positions or radio play; they were carefully chosen purchases of records embodying musical quality throughout vastly different musical genres. The records he selected during this crucial period – thoughtfully picked from discount 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 unusual combination of purchases to other shoppers truly demonstrated a young musician already confident in his personal preferences and resistant to conforming to narrow genre expectations.

This stretch of musical exploration, conducted in the unglamorous setting of a video rental store’s clearance section, proved invaluable to Batiste’s creative growth. Rather than simply accepting whatever was popular or conveniently at hand, he intentionally searched for individual performers and albums, displaying an independence of thought that would shape his approach to music throughout his life. The Blockbuster bins transformed into his own education, where he could explore diverse genres and establish a grounding in music that covered soul, experimental pop, hip-hop and R&B. These early purchases weren’t just entertainment; they represented investments in understanding the full spectrum of current musical landscape, lessons that would shape every musical decision he would take in the future.

The Documents That Started It All

The four records Batiste acquired in this formative period demonstrate the refined musical sensibilities of a young listener unafraid to blend different genres and styles. Michael Jackson’s Dangerous showcased the architectural brilliance of pop music, whilst Björk’s Vespertine offered 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 formed a personal musical canon that celebrated innovation, emotional depth and musical craftsmanship – values that continue to be central to Batiste’s artistic identity and his refusal to apologise for the breadth of his musical interests.

Rejecting Musical Snobbery: Why Punk Belongs Alongside Jazz

Batiste’s most striking musical admission comes in his candid endorsement of punk rock, specifically citing Amyl and the Sniffers as one of his preferred groups. Rather than consigning punk to a secret enjoyment or rejecting it as artistically inferior, he places the genre alongside the progressive jazz that has shaped his working life. This refusal to engage what he calls song shaming embodies a fundamental philosophical stance: that artistic value cannot be determined by genre boundaries or critical hierarchies. For Batiste, the question is not whether a song fits within prescribed categories of refinement, but whether it possesses true artistic authenticity and emotional impact.

The relationship Batiste establishes between punk and jazz demonstrates remarkably revealing. Both genres, he proposes, exhibit an essential kinetic energy and drive to explore that transcends their superficial distinctions. Punk’s unpolished intensity and jazz’s adaptive sophistication both necessitate skilled execution, inventive experimentation and an rejection of conformism to commercial expectations. This insight challenges the false dichotomy that often casts “serious” classical or jazz musicians as inherently superior to those who participate in rock or punk traditions. Batiste’s body of work has continually proved that artistic quality exists throughout different genres, and that a genuinely informed audience member recognises quality wherever it appears, irrespective of whether it appears on a concert hall stage or a crowded punk club.

• Punk music exhibits raw power akin to progressive jazz creativity
• Style classifications must not determine artistic credibility or listening merit
• Musical merit relies on integrity and emotional authenticity, not genre labelling

The Melodies That Influenced a Journey

Batiste’s musical journey reveals how particular pieces shape the fabric of our identities, acting as markers of pivotal moments and meaningful reference points. His earliest musical memories stem from his father playing Clarence Carter’s Strokin’, a song whose direct language he absorbed at just eight years old—a crucial exposure to music’s ability to convey adult experiences and desires. These core musical foundations were complemented by his Uncle Thomas, who sent him recordings of jazz legends alongside spiritual sermons, establishing a unique educational framework where secular and sacred music coexisted as equally valid manifestations of lived reality and understanding.

The records Batiste purchased as a young collector—Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Björk’s Vespertine, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate—demonstrate deliberate choices that shaped his artistic sensibility. These acquisitions reveal an instinctive attraction to artists who push boundaries who reject easy categorisation. Each album embodies 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 already asserting his commitment to authentic musicianship and artistic integrity.

Meaningful Occasions and Psychological Anchors

Perhaps no single song carries greater significance for Batiste than When the Saints Go Marching In, a classic New Orleans standard that bookends his personal philosophy. He performed this song at his grandmother’s funeral, an experience he credits with fundamentally changing his understanding of the spiritual power of music. The act of playing this particular song in that context—in Louisiana, where his grandmother was laid to rest near Mahalia Jackson—transformed it from a cultural landmark into a deeply personal spiritual foundation. He has selected it as the song he wants performed at his own service, creating a complete narrative arc of intergenerational connection and musical legacy.

Bach’s Air on the G String represents a different but equally profound emotional landscape for Batiste. He talks about the piece in terms of evoking the sensation of looking back on life as its final witness—a reflection about mortality and solitude that he has experienced viscerally whilst busking in New York underground stations at three in the morning. The nocturnal urban setting—the city finally slowing down—provides the perfect context for engaging with the piece’s existential weight. These emotional foundations demonstrate how Batiste uses music not just as entertainment but as a medium for 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 industry standards. From the funk grooves of Clarence Carter that accompanied his childhood to the avant-garde energy of punk rock, his musical preferences span decades and styles with unashamed passion. What develops is not a haphazard mix of disparate influences but rather a unified creative vision that values emotional authenticity and creative experimentation above commercial viability. Whether discovering records in discount music sections or choosing songs for his daily wake-up playlist, Batiste engages with music with the inquisitiveness of someone who understands that meaningful creative work goes beyond genre boundaries and speaks directly to the shared human condition.