Preview: A Special Evening with Jon Batiste and the Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, Aug. 22 

American music’s reigning renaissance man, Jon Batiste seems a natural to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra Friday, Aug. 22. After all, his newest (and 8th) album puts a jazz spin on Beethoven in “Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series Vol. 1).”

The pianist, guitarist, singer, composer and bandleader seems in firm but playful control of a boundless future. He sees no boundaries between past, present and what he’ll do next; or among musical styles – although he arguably personifies one rich tradition in particular.

Jon Batiste. Photo supplied

Batiste comes by his talent both genetically, as scion of a sprawling New Orleans musical family, and through tireless work.

Search “Batiste music” and a dozen relatives pop up including Batiste’s bassist father Michael who toured with Jackie Wilson and Isaac Hayes and united six brothers in the Batiste Brothers Band, and uncles including busy drummer Russell Jr. and composer arranger Harold who worked with Sam Cooke, Sonny and Cher, Dr. John and others.

In high-speed, ambitious catch-up with his intrepid family, Batiste attended the Skidmore Jazz Institute where he met his future wife Suleika Jaouad. He next appeared here in Cassandra Wilson’s band at The Egg, the skinny Juilliard kid at the piano. He led the Dap-Kings at the former Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival in 2018, courageously and ably filling in for the irreplaceable Sharon Jones (RIP, 2016). When Covid shut down the festival, Batiste performed online in an indefatigable solo representation, full of gutsy hope.

Maybe best known as leader of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Band from 2015 to 2022, he and Jaouad were the subject of the aptly titled “American Symphony.” They showed us both trouble, her bouts with cancer, and triumph: her recovery and Batiste’s debut performance of his first symphony. Candidly intimate, the documentary won an Oscar nomination. 

Friends since their early teens, they became a couple when Batiste brought his band to play in her hospital room during cancer treatment; a moment she described in her journal as “when the saints came marching in.”

They’ve since done book tours together. After writing for the New York Times, Vogue, Glamour, NPR’s “All Things Considered” and Women’s Health, her memoir “Between Two Kingdoms” recounts her struggle with leukemia. Her second published work, “The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life,” extolls the sense of creative play that children enjoy but which only fortunate, focused artists carry into later creative life.

Living that life, Batiste has won seven Grammys (22 nominations) for his seven prior albums.

His eighth album will form the first set of his show when he returns to Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Friday, Aug. 22

First, he and his versatile band will perform new songs from his “Big Money” album; then he’ll play with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Who knows what music will flow from that stage?

Show time is 7:30 p.m. Information and tickets at http://www.spac.org. 518-584-9330