Jon Batiste, the multi-GRAMMY® and Academy Award® winner, has released his ninth studio album Big Money via Verve/Interscope/Universal Music Canada.
Earlier this week, Batiste performed the title track on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and followed it up with a sold-out pop-up in Central Park to mark the album’s release.
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He also unveiled the third single, “Lean on My Love” featuring Andra Day. Known for her powerful vocals, Day softens her approach to match the track’s gentle, soulful tone. The accompanying video—shot in Altadena, CA at Victory Bible Church with Andra’s community—is a reflection of hope and resilience for those impacted by fires.
Written and recorded in just two weeks, Big Money strips things down while staying rich in spirit, joy, irony, and depth. Much of the album was recorded live—often in single takes and sometimes with just one microphone—focusing on feel over polish. The project merges gospel, New Orleans roots, protest energy, and pop melodies across soul, reggae, blues, and ballads. Alongside Day, the album features contributions from Randy Newman and co-producer No ID.
“We were in the middle of a five-years-long conversation about life,” Batiste says of No ID. “The moment we decided to collaborate there was a synergy we couldn’t have planned for—him wanting to explore something different, me in an American-roots guitar space, the shifts in culture.”
The title track, driven by Nick Waterhouse’s vintage acoustic guitar and lifted by vocals from The Womack Sisters, is both an anthem and a critique. “The title is soaked in irony—it’s about how greed can make you sell your values… ‘Don’t be a dummy, everybody chasing that big money’ pushes you and warns you—it cuts both ways.”
Other standout moments include “Lonely Avenue,” recorded in one take at Randy Newman’s piano. “Ray is my patron saint,” says Batiste. “I’m in conversation with Randy and Ray.”
The album wraps with “Angels,” featuring Batiste’s alter ego Billy Bob Bo Bob. “When I turn into Billy Bob Bo Bob,” he says, “I feel like a griot who lives in all tenses at once… When I dissolve tense, I dissolve tension.”
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