Friday FIVE: September 18 - Chopinesque

Jon Batiste comes from one of New Orleans’ great musical dynasties, not unlike the Marsalis family. He was playing drums in the Batiste Brothers Band at age eight, earned his bachelor’s and master's degrees in jazz at Juilliard, served as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, won the Grammy for Album of the Year for We Are, and won an Oscar for co-composing the score for Soul. In this episode, I reflect on what makes him so remarkable at the piano, feature his iconic Blackbird performance from the Ed Sullivan Theater on the 52nd anniversary of the Beatles’ American debut, and recommend his cover of Saint James Infirmary. Start with Chopinesque. You'll understand what all the fuss is about in no time. The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey. Here’s a link to Chopinesque: https://youtu.be/xZqjM_IPeXg Here’s a live version of Saint James Infirmary: https://youtu.be/M3qTwHRECmM Here’s the live performance of Blackbird: https://youtu.be/kqHGMsKWAyg This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com