The multi-talented musician, bandleader, and entertainer Jon Batiste gets so much acclaim as a pop-jazz headliner that his piano talents are sometimes overlooked. Yet, this four-part series of solo piano recordings has already begun to change those perceptions. Batiste issued his first volume, the highly acclaimed and top-charted Beethoven Blues, in 2024. To follow, he now presents three more volumes: Black Mozart, Vol 2, and Monk Mediations and Monk Movements, comprising Volumes 3 and 4.
Batiste is by no means the first jazz pianist or jazz artist to draw the linkage between classical composers and Thelonious Monk. Yet, given Batiste’s New Orleans upbringing, he brings a more comprehensive palette to the music.
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