Jon Batiste brings his musical mission of healing to the Dr. Phillips Center’s anniversary

The Dr. Phillips Center turns 10 this year and the ongoing celebrations of a decade of arts excellence cap off with a gift to us: a command performance from Grammy- and Oscar-winning musician Jon Batiste. 

Multi-instrumentalist Batiste — known to your parents as the former bandleader and musical tone-setter for Stephen Colbert’s late show — brings his Big Money Tour to Orlando for a night of jazz, soul, rock and all points in between. It’s a show about finding hope and joy and healing in dark times through music and dancing and coming together.

The tour is named after the artist’s recent record of the same name, a headfirst dive into the heady history of American song and sound in all forms, with guests like Randy Newman and Lana Del Rey lending a hand. 

Check Batiste bashing out these raucous and righteous songs live while you can — he’s already moved on with a new chart-topping album of solo piano Beethoven pieces. 

“It’s open for everybody to experience a powerful wave of joy and community,” Batiste says. This should be a gig for the books. And there’s a gala celebration for the venue before Batiste tears the house down. Now that’s an encore. 

We (Ray Roa, specifically) spoke to Batiste about big money and playing America in this day and age:

Musically and otherwise, can you talk a little bit about mistakes in your life? And perhaps — I don’t know if you want to go here — but mistakes that the world is making, and really how we can harness the seeming calamity of our own lives to discover something greater for ourselves and for our neighbors.

Yes, it’s a beautiful gift to be able to wake up another day and try again. You’re breathing, you’re here, and to be here is the first step to changing the direction of a mistake into a life lesson. I think about that a lot, just from the perspective of going through things, making mistakes, having life interruptions, and realizing in retrospect that all those things make me who I am today — and I wouldn’t change them. So whenever you’re in a moment where it feels like it’s a down period, or a moment where the world feels like it’s in a place of heaviness and calamity, as you say, I don’t think that that’s the end. If you wake up another day, if we have another chance to move forward, you just have to be in that moment and make the next best right decision. The next best right thing. With that, it could be brushing your teeth, it could be, you know, making a sandwich or making breakfast, but you just got to keep being in the moment and making the next best right choice.

Let me ask you about the vocation of being a musician. The form of this vocation is changing, you’ve said recently. You’ve kind of talked about how you’re not sure how much longer you’ll be a musician in that traditional sense.

Well, I think about it from the perspective of how I can be the most in service to humanity and to my community and ultimately, how I can continue to prioritize my family and my faith and my artistry in the best way, so that they can not be about uplifting me in my ego and my celebrity, but more about being of service.

I think that the industry is a real challenge because of how things have become and how there’s this premium on artists being fit into a mold that doesn’t fit. Artists have become more and more claustrophobic, and I think that’s why things are shifting. You’re hearing a lot of artists, and me personally, thinking about, how do we get out of the system as it’s set up for us, and build something that really can reach and touch the people who need it the most, and the people who care the most, and the people who we are most happy to serve. How do we build community with them that doesn’t have to go through the setup as it is now?

I think that that’s becoming more authentic. The more troubles we’re facing, the more people are going inward and feeling like they want to be as direct and as personal. And that may mean smaller, that may mean being in community with less people but it’s a deeper connection, or it could mean thinking about music and albums and touring in a completely different way. I’m sure that those discoveries will take different shapes based on different artists in their communities, but I think that over time, that’s going to create a better industry and a better sense of community overall.

Thinking back to what you were saying about servicing humanity around you, how much do you see and think about other Jon Batistes, if you will, with the talent who won’t have the same opportunities or luck maybe to realize your gifts? How in control do you feel of being able to find those folks and cultivate opportunities for them?

I think it’s a beautiful thing to have a platform to share with other people, because you can ensure that more people have the opportunity. So that’s really what I love to do with the gifts that I’ve been given and the time that I’ve put in to build a team and a platform to reach folks. It’s to use it to get other people to be able to express their gift, and to help people to see something within themselves that maybe you see what they don’t even see, and then, once they get an opportunity, it just changes their life journey. And I’ve seen that happen over the years, from the time that I started just a teenager to now. Being able to look back over 20 years of being a band leader, and musician, and artist, and a teacher and educator — to see that I’m able to impact lives in that way — just shows that the power is in going back and looking at those who are in the position that you once were, and figuring out a way, whether it’s through a good word or opportunity or even a collaboration, to empower them.

This is a tour that is healing, liberating. Is there anything else you really want Florida to understand about the tour that you’re bringing to the state that you haven’t said already?

It’s a family event. It’s a family gathering. It’s a beautiful thing to see when we perform. It’s so many different people from their family coming to shows. You’ll see generations, three and four generations of folks represented. Having the impact on generations like that — it’s open for everybody to experience a powerful wave of joy and community. It’s really a privilege to be able to go around the country and share that and give people something that is so powerful through the music and through the togetherness. It’s really what I want to share with everybody who’s out there in the community. So please, join us, and don’t be afraid to bring anybody who is in your community.