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Jonathan Batiste, now known as Jon Batiste, is a pianist and composer who performed at the Rubin Museum in New York City while still at Julliard in 2006, and again on October 17, 2008, when this video was recorded.

“Near the end of his concert at the Rubin Museum of Art, the pianist Jonathan Batiste played a piece about a six-inch statue, which sat across the stage from him on a pedestal. It was a representation of Virupa the Ugly, an ancient Tibetan yogi. Mr. Batiste said that his piece was the last section of a three-part composition he wrote for the statue. It was dark-toned post-Coltrane mainstream jazz, with a couple of dramatic mood shifts; a dense, torrid middle section; and some open space for improvising by Mr. Batiste and two other gifted, young and driven soloists: the tenor saxophonist Matt Marantz and the alto saxophonist Eddie Barbash.” ““ Ben Ratliff, New York Times

Performing Artists:

Jonathan Batiste, piano, harmonica

Matt Marantz, saxophone

Eddie Barbash, alto saxophone

Phil Kuehn, bass

Ulysses Owens, drums

Produced by Tim McHenry for the Rubin Museum of Art and Loren Schoenberg for the Jazz Museum in Harlem

Filmed at the Rubin Museum of Art

About Jon Batiste:

http://jonbatiste.com/

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