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Stories   >   Jon Batiste - We Are makes OffBeat Magazine's '50 Best Albums Of 2021 In Louisiana Music'

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Jon Batiste - We Are makes OffBeat Magazine's '50 Best Albums Of 2021 In Louisiana Music'

Posted: December 29, 2021

OffBeat Magazine writes….The COVID pandemic continued in 2021, making the presentation of live music difficult, and during a spike in infections, nearly impossible. Over the course of the year, fewer albums than usual were released with musicians more often issuing singles and EPs instead of full-length records. Nevertheless, in 2021 there were more than 150 album releases (that we are aware of) some of which contained outstanding performances.

Some of our Best of the Year picks were nominated for Grammy awards. Jon Batiste received eleven Grammy nominations—more than any other Louisiana artist since the awards began in 1958. The album We Are received eight nominations—Album of the Year, Best R&B Album, Record of the Year for Freedom, Best Traditional R&B Performance for “I Need You,” Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song for “Cry,” Best Music Video for Freedom, and Producer of the Year for “Sing.” The remaining three nominations were for the motion picture Soul composed by Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Other albums from Louisiana artists that were nominated include Ledisi for Ledisi Sings Nina, Harry Connick, Jr. for Alone With My Faith, Sean Ardoin and Kreole Rock and Soul for Live in New Orleans!, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux for Bloodstains & Teardrops, Cha Wa for My People and Corey Ledet for Corey Ledet Zydeco.

As usual, we’ve polled our writers and editorial staff and have gathered 50 of OffBeat’s most highly recommended albums of the year. We didn’t include reissues or albums recorded many years ago, but only those recorded and released in 2021. Some titles released in December 2021 will be considered for the “Best of 2022” list.

We understand the difficulties in ranking, and we only rank the Top 10. We hope that the readers use this list merely as a guide to the best music that Louisiana has to offer in 2021, keeping in mind that the list is only the opinion of a small group of music writers and fans. The Top 10 Albums includes; Jon Batiste: We Are (Verve).

WE ARE represents a completely new sonic chapter for Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominated recording artist and activist Jon Batiste. Inviting some of the most esteemed creative minds to assist in birthing the album, he reached the finish line smack in the middle of the first wave of the worldwide pandemic and volatile social unrest. The result is a body of work characterized by the consciousness of Marvin Gaye, the grounded optimism of Stevie Wonder, the iconoclasm of Thelonious Monk and the swagger of Mannie Fresh.

Alongside songwriter Autumn Rowe and producer Kizzo, Batiste wrote and planned much of the project in about a week from his dressing room at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he's the musical director and bandleader. WE ARE was recorded in New York, Los Angeles and in his native New Orleans, melding inspiration from his new home and new collaborators with that of the Batiste musical dynasty. The album was also recorded in between sessions for Disney/Pixar's 2020 hit film Soul­, which saw Batiste's music - and hands - incorporated into the animation about a teacher who dreams of being a jazz pianist.

—reviewed January 2022 by Geraldine Wyckoff………“We Are, is an incredible album that stands as a classic of this era and a triumph for the joyfully talented, New Orleans own, Jon Batiste.”

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