Jon Batiste Stages His Homecoming at Jazz Fest 2023

Jon Batiste and friends, by Erika Goldring

The Grammy winner used his time Friday at the Fair Grounds to stage an event, not put on a show.

The last two times Jon Batiste has played Jazz Fest, he used his time not only wisely but conceptually. In 2017 with Stay Human, his set seemed loose almost to the point of improvised with the band freed from cables and fixed positions on the stage, and for almost 15 minutes the whole band performed on the runway into the audience, seemingly sharing musical moments with each other as well as the crowd. A year later, he gave Stay Human the night off and delivered a straight-up R&B set singing in front of the Dap-Kings. On Friday, he topped those shows.

In a move that brought to mind Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” performance at Coachella 2018, Batiste brought members of St. Augustine High School’s marching band, choir and dance team for a set designed to celebrate Black life in New Orleans. “This is not a concert; it is a spiritual practice,” he repeated early in the show, and the implication throughout was that there was something inherently spiritual about Black people being Black together.

Not surprisingly, the show was often joyous. What was surprising is the degree to which Batiste shared the spotlight. He has often written a James Booker-like piano exhibition into the setlist, but not this time. He made sure the dancers got center stage regularly, and in one section they were the point as they danced to DJ Jubilee’s “Get it Ready Ready” and Maze’s “Before I Let Go,” songs that two generations of Black New Orleans party to. At one point he brought out four Native Americans to sing, add drums, and likely signal a connection to the Black Indians tradition. Nothing in the set was offhanded, so the question throughout the show was what something in the performance referenced.

At the same time, it never felt overdetermined. Batiste’s set was loose fun first, and he had the confidence to know that it would get where he was going. Late in the set, he announced one more song and started the taut slow jam, “Cry” from We Are, which was an improbable set ender, particularly with 20 minutes left. Still, remarkably, many people took him at his word and filed out before he rolled into “Freedom,” which was as joyous in concert as you’d expect, particularly with an army of dancers on stage to add to the energy. People in the audience who had enough room around them danced their feeling of freedom too. Not only did Batiste and company dance, but when the show was over he led everybody down a set of stairs at the end of the runway and he, his band, the St. Aug crew and the indigenous singers paraded off the stage and into the crowd.

At the other end of the Fair Grounds, country star Kane Brown mentioned to the audience that he realized this morning that he wouldn’t have all of his production onstage. Batiste figured out how to make a positive out of that absence for him. He has used his time on stage to show his musical talents better, but on Friday he showed his conceptual genius too.

Jon Batiste leading the parade, by Alex Rawls

Trumpet Mafia is an act that I only see a Jazz Fest because it is one of the few places that can presents the band at its most impractically large. On Friday, there were 10 or so trumpets on stage, along with two trombones, three saxes, an acoustic piano player, an electric piano player, an organist, guitar, bass and drums. The blare that that creates is part of the point, as is the energy onstage. The players were in constant, loose motion, whether they were playing or not, and their interaction was the point. At points they dueled, trading short lines; in others, they noisily sparred, squalling over top of each other. They came together to cover Tower of Power’s “Soul Vaccination” with Nigel Hall on vocals. Throughout, Ashlin Parker, Maurice Brown and John Michael Bradford got good moments, but everybody got some shine. They gave the crowd a moment when the horns split on stage to face off against each other, the merge to face the audience. It was theatrical and a little goofy, but it was also fun at a show I won’t get again until this time next year.

Alynda Segarra in the Cultural Exchange Pavilion, by Alex Rawls

Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff had a gig scheduled in the Cultural Exchange Pavilion because of her Puerto Rican heritage. She acknowledged its importance for her, but the set itself was really a Hurray for the Riff Raff show with her band behind her. It likely wasn’t a straight preview of the band’s Saturday set with Segarra periodically sitting down with an acoustic guitar to play some songs including “Nothing’s Gonna Change That Girl” from The Navigator, which sounded wistful in that context.

The set was the most straightforward one Segarra has played at Jazz Fest, and crowd clearly loved the comfort she felt in the space. It allowed her to refocus the title track from last year’s Life on Earth and make it more of a song/poem in the mode of early Patti Smith. She spoke more than sang its lyrics, letting the piece take shape and grow on its time, allowing drama escalate slowly as she reminds listeners that “life on Earth is long.” On the album, the song takes on an elegiac tint, but in performance, it felt more like a little sisterly wisdom. What we do with it is up to us.

What should be on your radar Saturday at Jazz Fest

Leyla McCalla

12:25 p.m., Sheraton New Orleans Fais-Do-Do Stage

McCalla’s Breaking the Thermometer is powerful on its own, but its songs come to life in concert. Hers was one of the sets people asked me about last year.

HaSizzle

12:30 p.m., Congo Square Stage

I will always take more bounce at Jazz Fest.

ÌFÉ

12:45 p.m., Cultural Exchange Pavilion

We talked with ÌFÉ about the roots in Cuban rumba, hip-hop, and Yoruban culture of this musical hybrid.

Boyfriend

1:25 p.m., Shell Gentilly Stage

Boyfriend took off the rollers and vintage lingerie in favor of a makeup-free presentation, but as last year’s Sugar and Spice shows, she remains provocative.

Judith Owen & Her Gentlemen Callers

4:35 p.m., Economy Hall Tent

Singer Judith Owen entered the public eye as a jazz singer, and on Come and Get It, she returns to it with a sense of theater and a very good band.

Updated May 7, 5:05 p.m.

The photo of Jon Batiste by Erika Goldring was added after initial publication.