Jon Batiste has announced three new studio albums, beginning with Black Mozart (Batiste Piano Series Vol. 2), arriving June 19 via Decca Records. Released on Juneteenth, the album continues Batiste’s ongoing solo piano series while reimagining the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through a Black American musical lens shaped by jazz, blues, ragtime, stride piano, and improvisation.
The new project follows 2024’s Beethoven Blues, which topped Billboard’s Classical Albums chart and marked one of the most commercially successful releases of Batiste’s career. With Black Mozart, Batiste expands on the same concept of bridging classical composition with contemporary Black musical traditions, while drawing parallels between Mozart and jazz icon Thelonious Monk.
In a statement announcing the album, Batiste described Mozart as “a pioneer who created his own musical language yet honored his predecessors,” praising the composer’s balance of “extreme melodic simplicity with intense complexity.” He continued, “Like Thelonious Monk, for me a latter-day example of all the same qualities, Mozart was a meticulous metaphysician who created a special blend of logical mastery that still somehow defies explanation.”
Batiste said the album imagines Mozart’s music through the rhythmic and improvisational traditions of Black American music. “I reimagined Mozart ‘Black,’ imbuing it with influences from jazz, rags, stride, blues, and stomps but still maintaining its core essence of modern classical music,” he said. He also described Mozart as “a bridge that eventually led to the modern age,” connecting the composer’s work to jazz traditions that continue to evolve today.
Alongside Black Mozart, Batiste also announced two companion albums centered on Monk: Monk Meditations and Monk Movements, both scheduled for release Aug. 14 via Verve Records. The pianist said the two records were necessary because “one wasn’t enough,” reflecting the complexity and influence of Monk’s compositions on his own musical thinking.
“Even before I knew who he was, I started to have some of the same musical thoughts that he had,” Batiste said of Monk in the album notes. “About how to catch the ictus of the swing. About super-syncopation and the humor of harmony.” He added that Monk remains “my favorite pianist of all time — not just jazz pianist, any style pianist.”
The two Monk-inspired albums take different approaches to the pianist’s catalog. According to the announcement, Monk Meditations is framed as a meditation album inspired by Monk’s music, while Monk Movements reimagines his compositions as long-form solo piano works. Together with Black Mozart and Beethoven Blues, the projects continue Batiste’s exploration of how classical music, jazz, and improvisation intersect across generations and genres.
