logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2021
1h 5m

“It Was a Test of My Mettle. Am I Really...

VANITY FAIR
About this episode

This week, Inside the Hive welcomes special guest Jon Batiste, leader of the Stay Human Band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Hot off his Golden Globe win for his work on the score of Pixar’s Soul, Batiste's latest album, We Are, represents a vivid turn from straight jazz into a joyful, danceable pop and neo-soul. It's also a bold declaration of conscience: catalyzed by the Black Lives Matter movement of last summer, when he rallied protestors with an ad hoc street band, Batiste wanted to deliver a personal statement on his own experience as a Black man in America. “We have to hold ourselves accountable to the things that we profess to believe,” he says. 


Batiste collaborated with 200 musicians, producers, and friends, including Quincy Jones, Mavis Staples, and even author Zadie Smith, with whom he held regular singing sessions over Zoom at the height of the pandemic. Here he recounts his own musical evolution, from Louisiana, where he grew up in a storied musical family, to New York, where he studied jazz piano at Juilliard and later developed what he’s come to call “social music,” a sound that draws on, in addition to New Orleans jazz, Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Wu Tang Clan and even Bjork to find a common humanity in a time of division.

Up next
May 21
An Explosive Report, Then a Bombshell Diagnosis: The "Original Sin" Authors on Biden's 2024 Decision
On this episode, executive editor Claire Howorth and Hive editor Michael Calderone sit down with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, authors of the bombshell political book, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” ... Show More
37m 20s
May 14
Department of Offense: Inside Pete Hegseth’s Bombastic, Chaotic Tenure
The scandal-scarred Defense Secretary is hanging on—but for how long? On this episode, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones, along with executive editor Claire Howorth and Hive editor Michael Calderone, discuss Pete Hegseth’s pugilistic style and tumultuous tenure atop the D ... Show More
30m 51s
Apr 30
Inside Sam Altman's Quest to Make AI "Run Like Water"
Sam Altman didn’t want to be the subject of a biography, suggesting the AI revolution is about more than one person, says Keach Hagey, a Wall Street Journal reporter and author of “The Optimist.” But on this episode, host and Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones, along with ... Show More
39m 51s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2023
Jon Batiste
Singer, songwriter, composer, and genuine music lover Jon Batiste serenades us with his harmonica-keyboard while reminiscing on the sounds of his childhood kitchen in New Orleans. He describes what it was like to grow up in a big, musical family of jazz legends, and shares some o ... Show More
42m 46s
Feb 2022
Jon Batiste
Jon Batiste is an overachiever. Batiste is the bandleader on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and an Oscar-winning composer for the Pixar animated movie, Soul. He also received the highest number of Grammy nominations this year, with eleven, including Album of the Year for his ... Show More
53m 30s
Dec 2020
Branford Marsalis
In the words of Questlove our guest for this special episode, is "a part of one of THE most important musical dynasty's in music". His touch has been pivotal to the evolution of jazz, but that's not all folks! Branford Marsalis' contributions to the culture can be seen and heard ... Show More
1h 50m
Jan 2022
The great Black music symposium with Angel Bat Dawid, Qur'an Shaheed, Dr Adam Zanolini and Ben LaMar Gay
Qur'an Shaheed, Dr Adam Zanolini and Ben LaMar Gay join composer, improviser, clarinetist, and pianist Angel Bat Dawid to discuss the importance of not conforming, the struggle to find money to do what you love doing, recognising what your gifts are, and the experience of being d ... Show More
31m 8s
May 2022
Jon Batiste on the art of pushing your limits
Jon Batiste has had a record year—he was the most nominated artist at the Grammys, winning five of his ELEVEN nominations across multiple categories, including Album of the Year. When he’s not making musical history, he’s a touring artist, late-night band leader, and Oscar-winnin ... Show More
28m 47s
May 2022
Jon Batiste on the art of pushing your limits
Jon Batiste has had a record year—he was the most nominated artist at the Grammys, winning five of his ELEVEN nominations across multiple categories, including Album of the Year. When he’s not making musical history, he’s a touring artist, late-night band leader, and Oscar-winnin ... Show More
29m 37s
Jan 2020
Wynton Marsalis, Keeper of the Jazz Flame
Wynton Marsalis was on the cover of Time as the avatar of the "New Jazz Age." His central role in reviving the genre is thanks partly to his gorgeous, virtuosic trumpet-playing, and partly to his founding of Jazz at Lincoln Center. JALC established jazz at the heart of American h ... Show More
37m 59s
May 2022
Tom Jones
Today we’ll hear Rick Rubin talk to one of his all-time favorite vocalists, Tom Jones. With his soulful baritone and unique interpretation of the American R&B and gospel, Jones became a mainstay at hip venues in London, New York and Las Vegas with now-timeless hits like “It’s Not ... Show More
54m 49s
Oct 2019
Why gigs feel like football matches with Kojey Radical, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Ashley Henry
Welcome to Music Life, the weekly series and podcast in which musicians talk to their peers about all aspects of life making music. This week, poet, artist, musician, rapper, model, and visual artist Kojey Radical commands the red sofa and hosts this episode. He is joined by: jaz ... Show More
26m 14s