Jon Batiste’s hotly-anticipated album release hits SPAC stage tonight
The jazz phenom releases ‘Big Money’ to an eager crowd during Philly Orchestra’s final weekend.
World-renowned jazz, soul, funk and R&B phenom Jon Batiste will hit the SPAC stage tonight to release his new album, Big Money, to an eager crowd. The musician, 38, hasn’t performed at SPAC since 2018’s Jazz Festival, four years before he swept the Grammys and then starred in a Netflix documentary.
“We've been wanting to get him back,” says SPAC President Christopher Shiley. “He had this incredible explosion of popularity and fame and has been one of the most in-demand touring artists since then. It’s a unique thing for Saratoga Springs to have this national album release at our venue right before he goes on a huge multi-city national tour. It’s really special.”
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo was originally scheduled for tonight’s show but had to cancel. The revered Philadelphia Orchestra’s needing a headliner for the evening helped land Batiste.
“He's wanted to work with the orchestra,” Shiley says. “His debut with them is going to be a really beautiful collaboration. And he won't have an orchestra when he goes on tour. So there are going be a lot of special SPAC-only components for this show.”
Batiste’s 2023 Netflix documentary, American Symphony, followed the star as he composed his first orchestral work for Carnegie Hall. It also followed his wife, author Suleika Jaouad — who’s from Saratoga and whom he met at a summer program at Skidmore — as she battled a recurring cancer.
In 2022, Batiste won the coveted Album of the Year Grammy and four others, from a whopping 11 nominations.
“Jon is a New Orleans musician with an incredible core jazz background,” Shiley says. “He's very studied. He went to Juilliard. To take that and then develop his music in the way that he has on this mainstream level — to then go on and win Album of the Year — is unheard of. There aren’t a lot of musicians that come from his background and his experience and become that mainstream. It’s certainly a rarity to see that.”
It’s an exciting end to Shiley’s first Philadelphia Orchestra residency as president of SPAC (the orchestra’s final evening will be tomorrow night’s Back to the Future movie night). In the role for just four months, he has a long history with the organization, starting as Senior Director of Artistic Planning in 2018. He slowly began to handle more and more planning, logistics and programming — recently focusing on SPAC’s year-round initiatives at the Spa Little Theater.
“I'm excited for this new opportunity to take what I've been doing in the artistic planning and programming space, and connect that a little more intently to the day-to-day operations of the venue,” he says. “It’s been a great journey for the Spa Little Theater, too, and we're excited for the future over there as well. [Having a year-round presence] really allows us to expand our artistic footprint and the artists that we can bring in. The amphitheater is such a unique space and takes a very certain kind of performer and artist, because of how big and expansive it is. So with a smaller space that complements it, you can do a lot of different things that might not otherwise work in a 5,000-seat venue,
“It’s been really exciting to diversify what we're able to bring in and share it all with the community. And it keeps us connected to everyone year-round, which I think is super important.”
For more info and to buy tickets, visit spac.org.
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