Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which will premiere Sept. 8 on CBS, has announced that the Louisiana-born multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste will be joining him on the upcoming program as the show’s bandleader.
In a statement released by Colbert and the network, Colbert said, “His music makes the audience feel so good, we may have to install a ‘Do Not Make Love’ sign.”
The press release described Batiste, who is sometimes billed under his full name of Jonathan Batiste, as “a musician, educator and humanitarian from New Orleans [who] has performed internationally with his band, Stay Human, and has collaborated with acclaimed musicians, including Prince, Wynton Marsalis and Lenny Kravitz … Batiste grew up playing percussion and then piano in his family’s band before studying at the Juilliard School, where he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees.”
Batiste’s most recent studio album, Social Music, reached #1 on Billboard‘s Jazz Album Chart. He appeared as himself on HBO’s Treme and as Da Organist Tk Hazelton in Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, the press release also notes. In 2012, Batiste was appointed the Artistic Director at Large of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Batiste’s first album on a major label will be released this fall.
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