Hey, everyone listening to the podcast. This is Ari Melbert, and this is a podcast bonus exclusive.

We read your comments, and some of you have said you really like it when we show you and play for you things that go beyond what was on the show.

And this is original. I just sat down and did a one-on-one with the band leader for the Stephen Colbert show, John Batiste.

He is, as many of you know from Colbert and probably

from his work, an incredible jazz musician and honestly a super charismatic guy. I love talking to him.

He was really interesting. This is a brand new podcast. He talks about growing up in New Orleans

and how that has shaped the way he approaches music, why he likes to be spontaneous, why he wanted to make

music from scratch on the subway. He's got a new album that we talk about. It's called Anatomy

of Angels live at the Village Vanguard. And he also talks about why he wanted to give me a very

special political gift in the middle of the podcast interview you're about to hear.

Since you can't quite see it, I'll tell you it was a hat that looked a little bit like a MAGA hat, but instead it said, make jazz great again.

What does that mean? I'll let him explain. Here's my interview with John Batiste.

This is The Beat with Ari Melbourne. I'm joined now by musician John Batiste. He's the band leader,

of course, for Stay Human, the house band on the late show with Stephen Colbert. He has a new album out now, Call, Anatomy of Angels live from the village vanguard, and he's Grammy nominated. Nice to see you. Hey, Ari, how you doing? I'm doing great. I love sitting down with people like you. Yes. And looking at the way

you approach music, one of the themes seems to be staying loose, staying human, as you put it,

doing full live takes, playing on subways. What is this all about for you that emphasis? It's about the human soul and the capacity

of transcendence that we have. We all have this ability to reach each other in a deeply profound

way. And love is the most transformative force that we have, baby. So when we create music,

we're really tapping into this

celestial power, this higher power. I like to call it celestial jazz because we're tapping

into something that is as big as the universe and it's expansive and it's been here before all of us

and it's still going to be here when we're gone. So going to the subway, we play, you know, bring people together that would never come together. They weren't trapped in the subway and we give them this kind of experience or at our concerts. We play from Carnegie Hall to the subway and it's always the same, that energy, that kind of deep love, spiritual vibration. And I really feel like we need more of that right now.

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