Multi-Grammy & Oscar winner Jon Batiste’s solo piano album, Beethoven Blues, is out today on Verve Records / Interscope

(November 15, 2024) — Multi-Grammy and Oscar Award winner Jon Batiste today released his latest studio album, Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), onVerve Records / Interscope. Marking the first installment in his new solo piano series, the project showcases his improvisatory transformations of some of Beethoven’s most iconic works, which he has reimagined through an expansive lens. To promote the project, Batiste recently visited The Kelly Clarkson Show, where Clarkson joined him for an impromptu duet of “Für Elise-Batiste” from the album. Watch their performance hereand stream/download Beethoven Blues here.

In conjunction with today’s album release, Batiste debuted the visualizer for one of the original compositions featured on the album, “Dusklight Movement.” Further showcasing his unique approach to Beethoven’s compositions, which he blends with the indomitable spirit of the blues, “Dusklight Movement” follows previously shared tracks from the album, “Für Elise-Batiste” and “5th Symphony in Congo Square.” Watch the accompanying music videos for “Für Elise-Batiste” and “5th Symphony in Congo Square.”

In an improvisatory reimagining of the composer’s work, Beethoven Blues offers a fusion of classical and contemporary styles that embodies Batiste’s “message of open-armed inclusivity” (The New York Times). For years, he has incorporated transformations of classical music into his albums, TV performances, and live shows, but Beethoven Bluesmarks the first time he has dedicated an entire album to the practice. The project gained momentum after a 2023 interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, in which Batiste demonstrated music’s ability to transcend genre borders by transforming Beethoven’s Bagatelle No. 25 (“Für Elise”) at the piano. The profound response to the clip, which has since garnered more than 20 million views, confirmed his belief that the time was right to make this long-held album idea a reality.

Beethoven Blues invites listeners into a living, evolving conversation between Batiste and Beethoven’s music, reimagining Beethoven’s timeless compositions through the lens of blues and spontaneous creation. Batiste, who grew up competing in classical piano competitions while gigging in New Orleans, approaches each track not as a mere rendition but as a dialogue, creating a fresh musical experience that honors the original while layering it with the soul of jazz and the spirit of blues. The album balances Beethoven’s structural and melodic intricacies with an improvisational freedom, allowing Batiste to reinterpret each piece in real time and embrace the humanity and “blues” that Beethoven might perhaps have incorporated, had the genre existed in his own time. Through the Batiste Piano Series, Batiste aims to create a set of solo piano recordings that transcend the rigidity often associated with classical music, each performance becoming a unique and original work of art that invites the audience into a communal and transformative listening experience.

The release of Beethoven Blues comes on the heels of Batiste’s recent Grammy nominations for “Best Music Film,” for his critically acclaimed Netflix documentary, American Symphony, and “Best Song Written for Visual Media,” for his ballad from the film, “It Never Went Away.” Produced in partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, the documentary follows Batiste over the period beginning in early 2022, as he celebrates 11 Grammy nominations while undertaking his most ambitious challenge yet: composing an original symphony for Carnegie Hall. This extraordinary trajectory is upended when his life partner, New York Times-bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning journalist Suleika Jaouad, learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned. In collaboration with Grammy-winning artist Dan Wilson, Batiste wrote and produced the song “It Never Went Away,” which also received an Academy Award nomination for “Best Original Song.”

Beethoven Blues is available now on CD, standard black LP, and a webstore-exclusive translucent black ice LP, with limited signed editions available exclusively from Batiste’s webstore.

Batiste’s classical background

Batiste has been variously described as “a certified musical genius” (The Guardian), “a protean pianist and megawatt personality” (Variety), and “a once-in-a-generation talent, with a passion for … connecting people through a shared love of music-making” (Classic FM). Born into a long line of Louisiana musicians, he trained as a classical pianist and received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano from New York’s Juilliard School. He now works with students and faculty as an inaugural Juilliard Creative Associate, while also serving on the Juilliard board.

Batiste returned to his classical roots in the 2021-22 season, when he curated a multi-concert “Perspectives” series at New York’s Carnegie Hall, where he is now an Artist Trustee on the Board of Trustees. The series was crowned by the world premiere of his American Symphony (2022), a Carnegie Hall commission, on the venue’s main stage. The Classical Source welcomed this large-scale orchestral work as “a joyous and beefy blend of orchestral sounds, funk, Dixieland, Latin, gospel, country, cool jazz, swing, hip-hop, R&B, as well as other styles and genres.”

Recent recording successes & upcoming TV show

Beethoven Blues follows the success of Batiste’s two most recent studio albums, both of which showcase the breadth and scope of his musicianship. “A concept album that challenges music’s provincial genre borders” (The New York Times), World Music Radio (2023) received four Grammy nominations, including one for “Album of the Year,” while the tracks “Worship” and “Butterfly” were nominated for “Record of the Year” and “Song of the Year” respectively. Similarly, We Are (2021) made Grammy history, receiving eleven Grammy nominations in seven different categories, and going on to win “Album of the Year” and four more. Other notable successes include the Disney/Pixar film Soul (2020); Batiste’s hands provided the model for the animation of its piano-playing protagonist, while his music for the film won him the 2021 Academy Award for “Best Original Score,” as well as Golden Globe, BAFTA, NAACP Image, and Critics’ Choice awards.

A master collaborator, Batiste has worked with artists ranging from pop and jazz icons Beyoncé, Prince, and Herbie Hancock to classical legends Andrea Bocelli, Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Bernard Romain, and Chris Thile. In early 2025, he makes his debut on the hit UK TV show The Piano, succeeding Lang Lang as a mentor in the BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 series’ third season, which continues the search to find the UK’s best amateur pianists.

Jon Batiste (photo: Eyerusalem Yaregal Seyoum & Melketsadek)

Jon Batiste: Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1)

Label: Verve Records / Interscope
Formats: CD, LP, black ice LP, streaming, & downloads
International release date: Nov 15, 2024

Für Elise-Batiste
Symphony No. 5 Stomp
Moonlight Sonata Blues
Dusklight Movement
Seventh Symphony Elegy
American Symphony Theme
Ode to Joyful
5th Symphony in Congo Square
Waldstein Wobble
Life of Ludwig
Für Elise-Reverie