Date 05/06/2015 - News People
Stephen Colbert has named Louisiana jazz musician Jon Batiste as his Late Show bandleader with a fittingly absurd video announcement. "People keep asking who my bandleader's gonna be," Colbert says, sitting down to a massive pile of New Orleans desert beignets, "Well, I like this guy." The camera pans over to the 28-year-old Batiste, who demonstrates his versatility by singing, playing some soulful piano and tossing off a wild melodica solo. The multi-instrumentalist started his career in hometown New Orleans, where he turned heads playing music on the streets with his trademark "love riots."??