Jon Batiste Puts Louisiana in Grammy Spotlight

Published 11:37 am Monday, April 4, 2022

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BATON ROUGE — Musician Jon Batiste provided the 64th annual Grammy Awards with plenty of Louisiana flavor Sunday night, winning five awards including the prestigious Album of the Year. Batiste, who grew up in Kenner, entered the night with 11 nominations, the most of any artist for this year’s awards.

“Jon Batiste has been a tremendous ambassador for Louisiana, as an entertainer and as someone who truly cares about the people of our great state,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “From his early days at St. Augustine High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Jon has gone on to prime-time stardom and international acclaim as a musician of the highest order. Through it all, he has kept New Orleans and Louisiana close to his heart, and that affection shines through in the music that the Recording Academy chose to recognize Sunday night. We congratulate Jon on this tremendous achievement.”

Perhaps best known as the bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Batiste won an Academy Award in 2021 for his collaboration on the “Soul” movie soundtrack. He is the subject of this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival commemorative poster.

Batiste’s Grammy haul Sunday night included Album of the Year (“We Are”), Best Music Video (“Freedom”), Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (“Soul,” shared with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance (“Cry”). Louisiana artists who contributed to the winning “We Are” album include P.J. Morton, Hot 8 Brass Band, Gospel Soul Children Choir, St. Augustine High School Marching 100 and Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews.

In addition, New Orleans singer-songwriter Lucky Daye won the Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album for “Table for Two.” Other Louisiana artists who earned Grammy nominations this year were Sean Ardoin, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Corey Ledet, Cha Wa, P.J. Morton, Christian Scott, Terence Blanchard, Youngboy Never Broke Again and Ledisi.