New Orleans’ Jon Batiste teams with funk guitarist Cory Wong for low-key ‘Meditations’ CD
- BY KEITH SPERA | STAFF WRITER JUN 10, 2020
Jon Batiste performs with The Dap-Kings on the Gentilly State at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Sunday, April 29, 2018.
- Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Funk guitarist Cory Wong is best known for his work with the band Vulfpeck. He also collaborates with New Orleans’ Jon Batiste.
- PROVIDED PHOTO
Jon Batiste onstage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 29, 2018.
Jon Batiste onstage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 29, 2018.
Keith Spera
As the bandleader of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and scion of a New Orleans funk family, Jonathan Batiste knows his way around an uptempo groove.
So, too, does Cory Wong, a featured guitarist in the funk/soul band Vulfpeck and its offshoot, the Fearless Flyers. He’s all over Vulfpeck’s most recent album, the celebratory 2019 concert recording “Live at Madison Square Garden.”
But on their new, collaborative album “Meditations,” Batiste and Wong dial way down for 32 minutes of understated, all-instrumental improvisations. Imagine New Age maestro George Winston jamming with The Dead-era John Mayer in New York — that’s the ballpark they’re in.
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The Batiste/Wong duo has a history. After meeting on an episode of the variety radio show “Live From Here,” Batiste invited Wong to sit in with Stay Human, the “Late Show” house band. Batiste subsequently guested on Wong’s 2019 solo album “Motivational Music for the Syncopated Soul.”
They recorded “Meditations” over three nights in a New York studio, joined by drummer Nate Smith and keyboardist Sam Yahel, whose contributions are as understated as the rest of the record.
The musicians leave a lot of empty space in the opening section of “Meditation,” the singularly titled track that ushers in the plural “Meditations” album. Against a gentle wash of white noise, Batiste plunks the occasional piano note in what amounts to the aural manifestation of the album’s shades-of-gray cover.
Wong eventually joins in with a series of clean, modest guitar licks atop a subtle beat. Batiste’s keyboard returns to harmonize with Wong’s guitar. During the course of its 10 minutes, “Meditation” starts to drift away, only to find its way back to Batiste’s elegant melody.
Wong’s crisp tone is especially Mayer-like throughout the second track, “Prayer.” He gradually fades out as Batiste steps in with more than a hint of melancholy.
With the pregnant pauses between notes and the way he lets each of them quiver and linger, Batiste channels Winston in “Home,” the album’s third track. The droning backdrop contributes to the chill in the air. Wong cuts through that chill when he arrives with another tidy guitar exercise in restraint. They lose the thread later, before the arrangement melts away to an electric keyboard.
The cover of the 2020 album ‘Meditations,’ a collaboration between guitarist Cory Wong and New Orleans keyboardist Jon Batiste.
Batiste is back on top and out front early in “Relationships”; Wong is largely relegated to a background groove alongside the percussion.
Behind the lush acoustic guitar that introduces “Teardrops,” a muffled subway system announcement sets the recording squarely in New York. Batiste largely plays a subtle supporting role, seeking out a place to insert his electric keyboard.
The final “Lullaby” is, as the title suggests, even more low-key. Mournful notes meander atop a wash of sound. Wong’s guitar eventually comes into bloom, delicately.
The conclusion of “Lullaby” sounds like it wasn’t particularly thought out. But for an improvised album such as “Meditations,” making it up as you go is the point, especially when the creators are traveling so far afield of their comfort zones.
