Vox Populi
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Video: ‘Freedom’ by Jon Batiste and ensemble
Jon Batiste and ensemble perform ‘Freedom.”
Running time: 3 minutes
Jon Batiste was born in Metairie, Louisiana, to a Catholic family. He grew up in Kenner, Louisiana. Batiste is a member of a New Orleans musical dynasty, the Batiste family. At 17, Batiste released his debut album, Times in New Orleans. In 2007, at the age of 20, Batiste made his debut at the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam, producing and performing his own show. He conducted music clinics, classes, and workshops throughout the Netherlands in inner-city schools and underprivileged neighborhoods. Batiste’s debut solo album, Hollywood Africans, was released by Verve Records in September 2018.
In June 2020, Batiste took part in the Juneteenth celebration in Brooklyn, New York with a day of protests, marches, rallies, and vigils to “celebrate, show solidarity, and fight for equal rights and treatment of Black people.” The celebration took place during the protests, following the murder of George Floyd, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, seen by some as connected to an increase in an awareness of racial injustice.
A few years later, in an interview with Forbes Magazine, Batiste said of the influence of jazz on his work:
Music is a real form of connection to a higher power at its greatest; music was a form of community that brought people together and gave them a common purpose. Jazz is really a term that doesn’t encompass what it’s pointing at, […] the intellectual breadth of black geniuses who were basically denied the credential of being a genius in society because of their skin tone. […] We always talk about improvisation, and it really is one of the only forms of music that exemplifies the American experiment putting all these different cultures into one country and coexisting and trying to create beautiful music together.
[Bio adapted from Wiki]
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I have loved this joyful video since I first saw it. Thanks for posting it here, Michael!
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My favorite video!
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late to the scene, but will watch this again and again. What a free range of color, motion, sound, and joyfulness. And those bronze living statues coming to life from the exuberance in front of them and us.
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Probably my favorite music video of all time. Jon Batiste is a miracle.
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My son John did volunteer work helping rebuild a house in the Ninth Ward in Nawlins, after Katrina. His surprise reward: he got to come on stage and play his bass to a packed house at Soul Harbor in the French Quarter, in thanks. I can’t wait to share this video with him. He too will marvel at the joy coming out of that town. Thanks for sharing it with us Voxers.
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Very cool, Jim. Thanks.
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so joyful I can’t help but dance in my chair
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Me too! I love Jon Batiste. Such joy.
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I’m still vibrating after watching this, just wanna dance!!! A terrific uplift on a grey day. thanks!
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Always a fabulous way to start the day. What a sublimely gifted man Jon Batiste is! Thanks, Michael.
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Thanks, Jan!
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