jazz, New Orleans Funk & Latin, Contemporary

9 MP3 Songs
URBAN/R&B: Soul, URBAN/R&B: Rhythm & Blues



Details:
Jonathan Batiste was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1986. He was first introduced to music through his family's band, the Batiste Brothers Band, in which he played the percussions at the age of 8, switching to the piano at age 11. A student of jazz and classical music, Jonathan has been mentored by his musical family and other great musicians, and is a poised and talented pianist of his generation.

Jonathan shows promise as a multi-instrumentalist and is versatile in performing on piano, saxophone, and bass guitar.

By the age of 16 years old, Jonathan had and can be seen performing with some of New Orleans' most outstanding and respected musicians including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Irvin Mayfield, Alvin Batiste, Cyril Neville, Donald Harrison, Greg Tardy, James Rivers, Maurice Brown, Russell Batiste, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and other great musicians. He has been performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for years and in 2005 headlined his show in the WWOZ Jazz Tent. He can be seen performing around the city at venues such as New Orleans' Snug Harbor, Tipitinas, Funky Butt as well as other venues and festivals.

Jonathan recently released a CD entitled "Times In New Orleans" which features the talents of some of New Orleans finest musicians including Jason Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Christian Scott, Maurice Brown amongst others.


At a young age of nine Jonathan was featured singing on his first major commercial in Japan. At the age of 17, Jonathan was selected to be a member of the 2004 Gibson Baldwin Grammy High School Jazz Ensembles in which he performed, in trio format, at the Grammy week of events as well as the Grammy pre-telecast and post celebration in Los Angeles where he performed with many artists such as Kurt Elling, Eric Marienthal. He has performed with Maraca, Goapele, as well as some of South Africa's musicians such as Prince Kupi, Musa Manzani. Jonathan has recorded with the renowned Alvin Batiste, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with Irvin Mayfield, Russell Batiste (drummer for the "Funky Meters") and New Orleans own Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews Including Shorty's current release "Orleans and Claiborne"

Also, at the age of 17, Jonathan wrote the score for the Arts Council of New Orleans. His score will be played every day and all day as background music at the Louisiana Arts Work Museum in New Orleans.

The year of 2004, Jonathan graduated from St. Augustine High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). NOCCA is a high-level fine arts conservatory that has produced alumni such as Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., Terrence Blanchard and many more. He studied Jazz at NOCCA in which he received education in ear training, big band, combo playing and private lessons in which he studied with Michael Pellera, a prominent pianist/composer and educator. He also studied with Alvin Batiste, New Orleans clarinetist/composer who is head of the jazz studies department at NOCCA.

Jonathan auditioned at The Juilliard School for the 2004-2005 school year and was accepted. He is presently studying Jazz Piano at The Juilliard School of music in New York.

Jonathan is already considered to be one of the of the next generation of young lions who will carry on the legacy of New Orleans' composers/piano wizards such as Jelly Roll Morton, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Professor Longhair, and James Booker to New Orleans and the world over. He is establishing his own unique voice in the epically diverse world that we call music.