Jon Batiste's Busy Season: Singer Talks New Jazz Club And Hanging Out At The Super Bowl
What a year for Jon Batiste. Or, what a year – so far.
The singer-songwriter-showman launched into 2025 by opening his first jazz club, singing the 'Star-Spangled Banner' at Super Bowl 59 and releasing a collection of songs in salute to his native New Orleans. Not bad, considering it's not yet summertime.
In a new interview with Forbes, Batiste chats about his ever-growing corner of the creative world. Read on for highlights from the conversation.
Batiste kicked off Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans with a stirring take on the 'Star-Spangled Banner," joining a lineup game day talent that included fellow Louisiana natives Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle.
To prepare for his take on the song, Batiste became a so-called 'YouTube historian.'
'I'm a studier,' he said. 'I think I watched almost more than half of the versions of the anthem people have done over the years. I thought about what the song means … and [thought]
'And also where we're at in the country – this song, what this anthem means. There were so many things that made it a very peculiar set up for me to be doing it at this moment, in this location.'
And did he catch Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance? Of course, Batiste said. The singer shared a booth at the big game with Daigle and Trombone Shorty, among others.
'It wasn't until halftime that I had a minute to settle in. Whether it was the people I was with or friends, fans, supporters. People working security. It was like, 'Oh man, I remember when I seen you play when you was 15 years old.' That was one of the first moments that I had to settle in.'
In January, Batiste opened Jon Batise's Jazz Club in Baha Mar, a popular Bahamian resort. It's a new endeavor for the singer's, who's never before owned a club. And he's enjoying it so much 'I should've done this 10 years ago,' Batiste said.
'There's this beautiful thing that happens in the Bahamas, because you're in the middle of this community – where the diaspora really settled and transformed," he said. 'You've got musicians from Cuba who have come over. You've got musicians from Brazil. Musicians, obviously from New Orleans, but Miami has an incredible culture of musicians. That's just a 30-minute flight. Then, you have all these folks who are from the Bahamas that are part of it."
He continued, 'There's so much that's filtering into the club. I just can't speak highly enough about it. I almost wish I had more time to spend working on it.'
Has he considered expansion? It's possible.
' I wanna do that, I just don't know when,' Batiste said. 'We're learning so much."
Batiste hit the road last year on a coast-to-coast tour, his first run of shows as a headlining artists (it's worth noting that the seven-time Grammy Award-winner spent seven years as bandleader of 'The Late Show'). Stops included The Tabernacle in Atlanta, The Fillmore in Philadelphia and Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium.
Batiste hopes to tour more in the future, because 'when you go on tour, there's a momentum and an energy that's built," he said.
About his time on the road, Batiste said, 'I've really grown the relationship with my community. There's such a hunger for us to be in the room together again.'
Now, Batiste sets his sights on a new partnership with luxury car company Infiniti; he's promoting the QX80, an SUV that includes Klipsch Individual Audio, a 24-speaker system that allows drivers to take a call while passengers continue to spin music.
'I've had a love of listening to music in the car. I've also had a love of going on drives with my friends, my family, my wife. We spend a lot of time connecting in the car,' Batiste said. 'The question then becomes, 'what kind of car is it?' This collaboration has really been something that's helped our family to have another place that we can connect that feels aligned with our values and our energy.'
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