Pianist and singer
Jon Batiste has always wanted to try and heal people with his music, bridging musical, cultural, and political divides. It was the modus operandi of his long-running
Stay Human ensemble, who later brought their message of unity and love to a wider audience via their time as the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It was also the underlying ethos at work on
Batiste's Grammy-winning 2021 album
We Are, a genre-crossing pop production informed by his deep jazz and New Orleans R&B roots. With 2023's
World Music Radio, he again seeks to heal across boundaries, crafting a soul- and dance-infused album that feels like something
Stevie Wonder might have made in the 1980s, but colored by his own distinctive blend of contemporary pop and jazz harmonies. Loosely conceptual,
World Music Radio is designed to play as the broadcast of interstellar radio DJ Billy Bob Bo (voiced by
Batiste), whose message of global unity bookends the album. Particularly
Wonder-esque is the adult-contempo-ish "Calling Your Name," replete with a harmonica solo and fuzzy synth backgrounds. Equally evocative is the '70s roller disco vibe of "Call Now (504-305-8269)," which finds the pianist's father,
Michael Batiste, laying down a funky bass line. Also lending their voices are a handful of guests, including
JID,
NewJeans, and
Camilo, who jump on board for the pop-reggae number "Be Who You Are," and
Jon Bellion and Nigerian rapper
Fireboy DML, who bring an uplifting soulfulness to the Afro-beat-inflected "Drink Water." More high-profile collaborators pop up, including
Lana Del Rey, who duets on the emotive album closer "Life Lesson,"
Lil Wayne on "Uneasy," and even saxophone icon
Kenny G, who brings his smooth sound to a brief version of "Clair de Lune." Despite all of these guests and shifting stylistic moods,
World Music Radio holds together nicely. The production has an organic, musically experimental vibe that feels like
Batiste is really bridging his jazz and pop influences. There's also a sense that he is digging deeper emotionally after a tough few years. In 2021, his wife, writer
Suleika Jaouad, battled a recurrence of leukemia that eventually led to her undergoing a bone marrow transplant. During her hospitalization,
Batiste wrote her lullabies as a way of offering comfort. One of them, "Butterfly," a spare piano ballad in the
Paul McCartney tradition, is included on
World Music Radio and proves one of the most indelible songs on the album. There are other candid tracks, like the gospel-inflected "Wherever You Are" (which sounds like it was recorded live at church) and "White Space" (a lilting, impressionistic piano ballad where
Batiste coos through a vocoder). It's in these intimate moments on
World Music Radio, when
Batiste sounds like he's jamming out at home or singing directly to a loved one, that you can truly feel that his desire to heal the world comes from a deeply personal place. ~ Matt Collar