Jon Batiste has been lending his musical talents to police brutality protests

The New York Times

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader has been performing before the protesters on the streets of New Orleans and New York City. For the past three weekends, he's been marching in the streets of New York, leading musicians and protesters through hymns and songs like “We Shall Overcome” and “Down by the Riverside.” Batiste has also been performing his own take on “The Star-Spangled Banner" that, according to Alan Scherstuhl, "seethes, mourns and aspires, drawing on the rollicking stride piano of Fats Waller and the volcanic eruptions of Art Tatum." “The way that Jimi Hendrix took the song, the way that Marvin Gaye or Whitney took it — that tradition is what I am thinking of when I play it,” said Batiste, noting that the song was written by slave owner Francis Scott Key. “The diaspora that they infused into it is a response to the toxic ideologies that are embedded in the song and thus in the culture.”