Jazz Is Now

Released in 2013, Jazz Is Now serves as a vital document of Jon Batiste's pre-Late Show era, showcasing his formidable skills as a jazz purist with a populist heart. Recorded with his long-time collaborators in Stay Human, the album highlights Batiste's ability to synthesize disparate elements of American music - ragtime, stride piano, gospel, and post-bop - into a cohesive, modern statement. The tracklist is a mix of bold originals like 'Creative' and 'Thunder' alongside radical reinterpretations of standards like 'Moon River' and Scott Joplin's 'The Entertainer'. Critics, particularly from AllMusic, noted the album's 'vibrant energy' and Batiste's 'infectious charisma,' praising his ability to make traditional jazz feel urgent and contemporary. It stands as a more acoustic, jazz-centric counterpart to his later genre-blurring works like WE ARE, emphasizing his identity as a New Orleans piano virtuoso first and foremost.