Current:Home > MyJon Batiste’s ‘Beethoven Blues’ transforms classical works into unique blues and gospel renditions-LoTradeCoin
Jon Batiste’s ‘Beethoven Blues’ transforms classical works into unique blues and gospel renditions
View Date:2025-01-18 17:05:45
NEW YORK (AP) — When Grammy-award winner Jon Batiste was a kid, say, 9 or 10 years old, he moved between musical worlds — participating in local, classical piano competitions by day, then “gigging in night haunts in the heart of New Orleans.”
Free from the rigidity of genre, but also a dedicated student of it, his tastes wove into one another. He’d find himself transforming canonized classical works into blues or gospel songs, injecting them with the style-agnostic soulfulness he’s become known for. On Nov. 15, Batiste will release his first ever album of solo piano work, a collection of similar compositions.
Titled “Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1),” across 11 tracks, Batiste collaborates, in a way, with Beethoven, reimagining the German pianist’s instantly recognizable works into something fluid, extending across musical histories. Kicking off with the lead single “Für Elise-Batiste,” with its simple intro known the world over as one of the first pieces of music beginners learn on piano, he morphs the song into ebullient blues.
“My private practice has always been kind of in reverence to, of course, but also to demystify the mythology around these composers,” he told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Wednesday’s album release announcement.
The album was written through a process called “spontaneous composition,” which he views as a lost art in classical music. It’s extemporization; Batiste sits at the piano and interpolates Beethoven’s masterpieces to make them his own.
“The approach is to think about, if I were both in conversation with Beethoven, but also if Beethoven himself were here today, and he was sitting at the piano, what would the approach be?” he explained. “And blending both, you know, my approach to artistry and creativity and what my imagined approach of how a contemporary Beethoven would approach these works.”
There is a division, he said, in a popular understanding of music where “pristine and preserved and European” genres are viewed as more valuable than “something that’s Black and sweaty and improvisational.” This album, like most of his work, disrupts the assumption.
Contrary to what many might think, Batiste said that Beethoven’s rhythms are African. “On a basic technical level, he’s doing the thing that African music ingenuity brought to the world, which is he’s playing in both a two meter and a three meter at once, almost all the time. He’s playing in two different time signatures at once, almost exclusively,” he said.
“When you hear a drum circle, you know, the African diasporic tradition of playing in time together, you’re hearing multiple different meters happening at once,” he continued. “In general, he’s layering all of the practice of classical music and symphonic music with this deeply African rhythmic practice, so it’s sophisticated.”
“Beethoven Blues” honors that complexity. “I’m deeply repelled by the classism and the culture system that we’ve set up that degrades some and elevates others. And ultimately the main thing that I’m drawn in by is how excellence transcends race,” he said.
When these songs are performed live, given their spontaneous nature, they will never sound exactly like they do on record, and no two sets will be the same. “If you were to come and see me perform these works 10 times in a row, you’d hear not only a new version of Beethoven, but you would also get a completely new concert of Beethoven,” he said.
“Beethoven Blues” is the first in a piano series — just how many will there be, and over what time frame, and what they will look like? Well, he’s keeping his options open.
“The themes of the piano series are going to be based on, you know, whatever is timely for me in that moment of my development, whatever I’m exploring in terms of my artistry. It could be another series based on a composer,” he said.
“Or it could be something completely different.”
veryGood! (5)
Related
- John Krasinski Revealed as People's Sexiest Man Alive 2024
- Miami Seaquarium’s Lolita the orca died from old age and multiple chronic illnesses, necropsy finds
- Reba McEntire claims she's 'not the best.' As a coach on 'The Voice', she's here to learn
- As Walter Isaacson and Michael Lewis wrote, their books' heroes became villains
- Man who stole and laundered roughly $1B in bitcoin is sentenced to 5 years in prison
- Malaysia says landslide that killed 31 people last year was caused by heavy rain, not human activity
- Jurors in New Mexico convict extended family on kidnapping charges; 2 convicted on terrorism charges
- Australian journalist says she was detained for 3 years in China for breaking an embargo
- Louisiana man kills himself and his 1-year-old daughter after a pursuit
- Gaza’s doctors struggle to save hospital blast survivors as Middle East rage grows
Ranking
- The Daily Money: Inflation is still a thing
- Prosecutors seek to recharge Alec Baldwin in the Rust movie shooting
- Instead of coming face-to-face with Michael Cohen, Trump confronts emails and spreadsheets at New York trial
- Man punched Sikh teen in turban on New York City bus in suspected hate crime, authorities say
- Deion Sanders doubles down on vow to 99-year-old Colorado superfan
- 'Nightmare': Family of Hamas hostage reacts to video of her pleading for help
- Teen Mom's Kailyn Lowry Shows Off Her Placenta Smoothie After Welcoming Baby No. 5
- Taco Bell is the quickest fast-food drive-thru experience, study finds. Here's where the others rank.
Recommendation
-
Can I take on 2 separate jobs in the same company? Ask HR
-
Britney Spears writes of abortion while dating Justin Timberlake in excerpts from upcoming memoir
-
Anonymous bettor reportedly wins nearly $200,000 after massive NFL parlay
-
Suzanne Somers' death has devastated fans. It's OK to grieve.
-
Investigators believe Wisconsin kayaker faked his own death before fleeing to eastern Europe
-
China’s economic growth slows to 4.9% in third quarter, amid muted demand and deflationary pressures
-
Well-known leader of a civilian ‘self-defense’ group has been slain in southern Mexico
-
Disney attorneys want to question former administrator in lawsuit with DeSantis appointees