by Kevin McLaughlin
Jon Batiste is an eager traveler across musical borders. At Blossom Music Center on Thursday, August 20, the pianist, singer, and composer demonstrated his broad musical fluency, moving among jazz, gospel, blues, pop, and classical music in a Cleveland Orchestra program that was both exhilaratingly loose and more coherent than its variety suggested.
Drawing on Batiste’s albums Hollywood Africans, WE ARE, World Music Radio, Beethoven Blues, and BIG MONEY, the program ranged from Batiste originals to classical staples, and jazz standards, with detours into gospel and dance breaks.
Batiste arrived onstage to a standing ovation, dressed in a white suit and carrying a white coffee mug. He was joined by a trio — guitar, drums, and voice — whose precision and easy rapport anchored the performance.
Monday evening’s Cooper International Competition for Violin concerto finals in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall marked the culmination of a week’s worth of public playing that took the measure of an impressive group of young musicians in solo recitals.
Performing Claude Debussy’s complete Préludes in recital is rare, but Jean-Yves Thibaudet has been making a habit of it. Over the past few years, the pianist has appeared in venues across the country to play the entirety of Book I and Book II as a 90-minute concert. He presented that program on July 30 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
