TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Christmas has inspired some great songs in every genre and some really bad ones. Today, we'll hear some great ones. We'll start with Jon Batiste at the piano, playing, singing and talking about some of his favorites. It's Part 2 of the session we recently recorded with him. Batiste was the band leader and music director of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" from its premiere in 2015 until 2022. That same year, his album "We Are" received 11 Grammy nominations in seven different categories and won five Grammys, including album of the year.
His new album, "Beethoven Blues," features his reimaginings of Beethoven compositions. He also wrote the score for this year's film "Saturday Night," about the first SNL broadcast, and he appears in the film as musician Billy Preston, the first musical guest. A documentary about Batiste called "American Symphony" is now nominated for a Grammy for best music film, and Batiste is nominated for best song written for visual media. Here's the interview.
So as we speak, Christmas is coming up soon. And I don't know how you feel about Christmas music. In my opinion, like, some of it is just, like, really fun. Some of it is kind of transcendent. And some of it is so irritating, causing, like, the worst earworms.
GROSS: And, like, just like, please, don't play that again (laughter). I never want to hear that again. So what's your take on Christmas songs?
JON BATISTE: Well, you know, I mean...
(PIANO PLAYING)
GROSS: Charlie Brown.
BATISTE: I love this one. Vince goes...
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Whew, that's a deeply existential decision.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: (Vocalizing). And then, blues.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Or let's see, the other one.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: "Christmas Time Is Here."
GROSS: Those are both - yeah, aren't those both from Vince Guaraldi's...
BATISTE: Yeah, Vince Guaraldi.
GROSS: ..."A Charlie Brown Christmas"?
BATISTE: Yeah, I associate a lot of that series and Vince Guaraldi in general with Christmas. I know he's done a lot more (laughter) than Christmas music. But that soundtrack, that album really changed me a lot. A lot of that influence comes into my music.
GROSS: Is there a hymn that you especially love...
BATISTE: Oh, yeah.
GROSS: ...That's kind of Christmas-oriented? And could you play and sing it?
BATISTE: Let's see if I got...
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Whew. You know that one?
GROSS: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"?
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Yeah. I love that...
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Whew. (Singing) Yeah. Ooh, that's got a sound. (Singing) God rest ye merry, gentlemen. Let nothing you dismay. Remember, Christ the Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us from all Satan's power when we had gone astray. Oh, good tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. Oh, good tidings of comfort and joy. I love that melody. Look. (Singing) God rest ye merry, gentlemen. It's got a blues thing to it. (Singing) Let nothing you dismay, ooh. (Laughter) Or hymns? What about...
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: You know that one?
GROSS: That's "Greensleeves," isn't it?
BATISTE: Yeah. Oh, man. (Vocalizing). Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Yeah.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: What child is this who lay to rest when shepherds watch are sleeping. (Laughter) Similar type of melodies. You know, that sound is so - it reminds me of bells ringing in the dead of night on Christmas Eve and just snowfall. And there's a majesty to that. There's a majesty to that time and that moment for many reasons, obviously. But there's something about that space in time that, you know, certain Christmas music is able to manifest that feeling and that environment into sound. It's able to make it sound.
GROSS: You know, it's funny, like, "What Child Is This?" that you just played and when you played "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," I never heard it as kind of minor key and dark as you played it.
BATISTE: Oh, yeah, yeah. (Laughter) I like it like that. I don't know.
GROSS: Yeah. Me, too.
BATISTE: What...
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: You know that (vocalizing)?
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: Whoa.
GROSS: I don't know that. What is it?
BATISTE: That's (singing) "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." I grew up with those, too. That's amazing, that those songs just have that same sound.
GROSS: What was church like for you when you were growing up? In a Catholic family, right?
BATISTE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up in the Catholic - my mother, she grew up Baptist. And then we went to Catholic Church but also would sometimes go to the Baptist Church, and then eventually to AME Church. So I had this experience with mostly Catholic. But then also, in New Orleans, there's lot of different manifestation of the Roman Catholic tradition. It's very tied to the culture and to Mardi Gras in ways that are, you know, very interesting. But it was beautiful in particular on Christmas, where we go to midnight mass, and we would experience these hymns and people would sing and just have this majesty and this real allure for me.
I actually connected to it most during that time. And I also learned a lot from Bach's music. You know, we talked about Bach in the past and just how Bach is somebody who in history, you know, him and Duke Ellington, just they composed so much music. But one function of why Bach was able to compose that much music, besides the fact that maybe he was a alien, is that he wrote for the church every Sunday. And that ritual - and I imagine at some point
BATISTE: I don't know when in my life or when I would have the setup to do that, but I want to participate in some sort of ritual in service to the Creator, where I'm composing and sharing that music, just like I experienced when I was growing up.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is multiple Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste. He's joining us at the piano. His latest album is called "Beethoven Blues." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with multiple Grammy Award-winning pianist, composer and singer Jon Batiste. He's at the piano playing some of his favorite Christmas songs.
My two favorite Christmas songs - one of them is secular, and one of them is more, you know, about Christmas and about Jesus. So the secular one is "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" from the film "Meet Me In St. Louis." And, you know, you were talking about, like, sounding like church bells before. The opening chords of this are so church bells. And the more religious song is "O Holy Night," which I think is just such a beautiful song. Could you play either or even both?
BATISTE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(Playing piano, singing) Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light. Next year, all our troubles will be out of sight.
That one, right?
GROSS: Yeah. And it's the part - the by next year part is a part that sounds like church bells - the chords there.
BATISTE: (Singing) By next year.
Yes.
(Playing piano, vocalizing)
Wow, dude. Terry, you've got a ear. You hear that?
Terry, that's it. (Playing piano, singing) By next year, our troubles will be out of sight.
I love that. That lyric has - wow. Wow. That lyric is one of my favorites, actually, now that you mentioned it. It has a relevance to our time.
GROSS: And a great line in it, too, is until then we'll have to muddle through some how.
BATISTE: Muddling. That's the one I was thinking, OK.
GROSS: Yeah.
BATISTE: (Playing piano, singing) Some day soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
GROSS: Nicely done.
BATISTE: That's a great one. I'm just remembering these - this beautiful stuff.
GROSS: Do you like "O Holy Night"?
BATISTE: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's (singing) o holy night. The stars are brightly shining. It is a night idea of our dear savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
(Playing piano). That's how it goes, right?
GROSS: Yes.
BATISTE: Yeah, yeah. I remember. I'm trying to remember. (Playing piano) That song reminds me of...
GROSS: Yeah. That's more Beethoven.
(PLAYING PIANO)
GROSS: That's one of the Beethoven things that you reimagine on your new "Beethoven Blues" album.
BATISTE: But that's reminds me...
(Playing piano, singing) O holy night. The stars are brightly shining.
Like, this is what I'll do. I'm hearing, like, the symmetry of both of those melodies.
(Playing piano, vocalizing).
And (playing piano, singing) O holy night.
You hear that?
(Playing piano, singing) The stars are brightly shining. It is a night idea of our dear savior's birth.
Wow. There's something there. You've given me an idea.
GROSS: Oh, good. It is the night part, that descending line, I think that has so much drama in it.
BATISTE: Oh, yeah.
GROSS: Just, like, the musical line.
BATISTE: Yes, yes. What's the part on the bridge?
(Playing piano, singing) Fall on your knees.
GROSS: That's the other drama part, the fall on your knees. Yeah.
BATISTE: (Playing piano, singing) Hear the angel of voices. O night divine. O night divine.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Wait. Whew.
(Playing piano, singing) Fall on your knees.
Any time you go to that chord, it's a minor 3 chord.
(PLAYING PIANO)
BATISTE: That's one of my favorite progressions. You got the one chord.
(Playing piano) And then you go to the 3 - one, two, three. Ooh. That transition.
(Playing piano, singing) Fall on your knees.
GROSS: That - it gives me chills.
BATISTE: the angel voices, oh, night divine, yeah. That's blues. See that?
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: (Laughter) Yeah.
GROSS: Since I made so many suggestions on what to play, I'd like you to choose the last piece. And whether you want it to be a Christmas song or a Beethoven composition or anything else, whatever mood you feel like playing. Is that too wide open for you?
BATISTE: I'm going to figure it out as I play (laughter).
GROSS: OK.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: (Singing) Don't stop dreaming, don't stop believing, 'cause you know that our time is coming up. So let's soak up the day and dance the night away. So with all you've got, don't stop.
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: (Singing) I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord. But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth - the minor fall and the major lift. The baffled king composed "Hallelujah"
(PIANO PLAYING)
BATISTE: (Singing) Hallelujah, hallelujah.
GROSS: Wow. Oh, that was wonderful. And so it started with Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," went to what I think is probably an original song that I'm not familiar with and then into Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Beautifully done, beautiful connections in there. What was the middle piece that I didn't recognize?
BATISTE: Yes, that's a piece entitled "Don't Stop." It was the final track from my first album, "Hollywood Africans."
GROSS: That is beautiful. Thank you for being so generous and so interesting and illustrating so much music for us. I so appreciate it. And I also wish you a merry Christmas.
BATISTE: Oh, thank you so much. It's a pleasure every time. Thank you very much for your gift to the world and for who you are. Much love.
GROSS: Oh, gosh, thank you. Jon Batiste joined us at the piano from the studios of WNYC in New York. We thank them. This was the second part of my session with Jon Batiste. You can find the first part on our podcast or website. His latest album, "Beethoven Blues," features his reimaginings of Beethoven music. After we take a short break, Questlove will play recordings from the Christmas playlist he put together for us. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF WYNTON MARSALIS' "SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN")
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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