Autumn Rowe Earns Four Grammy Nominations for Cosmic Collaboration with Jon Batiste
South Bronx, New York-born singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ Autumn Rowe felt an instant spiritual and musical connection when she heard an emailed demo of Jon Batiste singing her song, "Sing." The only snag was that Autumn knew nothing about him and had no way of contacting the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Film Award-winning artist. Eventually, the stars aligned and Autumn and Jon worked together on Jon's 2021 album, WE ARE, which has now earned Autumn four Grammy nominations.
"In all my life, I'd not heard an artist take an idea of mine and make it come alive the way he did. Jon's New Orleans roots, and authentic vocals, were magnetic to me," Autumn shares. She continues: "We pushed each other during the WE ARE sessions; we worked until exhaustion. In my heart, WE ARE took hundreds of years to make, as this album celebrates those who came before us and made possible for us to be here today."
For her contributions to WE ARE—Autumn co-wrote five of the album's 13 tracks—she has received Grammy Nominations for "Record of the Year" for "Freedom" (a track she also produced); "Album of The Year" for WE ARE; "Best Traditional R&B Performance" for "I Need You;" and "Best R&B Album" for WE ARE.
The story goes: upon hearing Jon's vocal on "Sing," Autumn felt something of a cosmic artistic connection. However, she had no official way of reaching Jon, so she DMed him for months until he finally saw her messages. Then, there was the challenge of synching up the two in-demand artists' schedules, as Jon is the musical director and bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. So Autumn and her production partner, Kizzo, flew to New York, camped out in Jon's dressing room, and wrote and recorded in fevered bursts between Colbert Show tapings. Their artistic connection was instant—just as Autumn thought—and quickly the two composer/artists had created the foundation for WE ARE.
WE ARE is Jon's eighth album, and it was released on Verve Records on March 19, 2021. It's a triumphant and epiphanic artistic entry in the jazz/soul artist's creative continuum. The 13-song album celebrates Black history with forward-thinking musicality. It features a dazzling array of guests, including Mavis Staples, Zadie Smith, PJ Morton, Trombone Shorty, Kizzo, Autumn Rowe, and Steve Jordan. Jon earned 11 Grammy nominations for the album, putting him the lead artist of the 64th annual awards, ahead of Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish.
Autumn is an artistic renaissance person who, in addition to being a singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ, is also a session singer, vocal coach, a mentor, and something of a TV personality through her appearances on Season 2 of The X Factor, and her five-year stint as the vocal coach on America's Got Talent. Select career highlights include writing the dance anthem behind the 2011 FIFA World Cup "Happiness," featuring Alexis Jordan, and working with such artists as Diana Ross, Dua Lipa, Tori Kelly, Ava Max, Naia Izumi, Jax Jones, Big Freedia, MK, Avicii, Zedd, Alesso, AfroJack, Deadmau5, Alex Newell, Leona Lewis, Digital Farm Animals, Boy George, Jon Bellion, The Knocks, Nick Jonas, Kali Uchis, Kacy Hill, Fifth Harmony, Rodney Jerkins, Sinéad Harnett, FKA Twigs, Lindsey, Stirling, Becky G, and Macy Gray, among many other artists. Autumn is currently signed to Stellar/Sony ATV as a songwriter.
Jon is part of New Orleans royal musical Batiste family which also includes Lionel Batiste of the Treme Brass Band, Milton Batiste of the Olympia Brass Band, and Russell Batiste Jr. He has recorded and performed with such artists as Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, Ed Sheeran, Roy Hargrove, and Mavis Staples. Jon regularly tours with his band Stay Human, and, since 2015, appears with them nightly as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In 2020, he co-composed the score for the Pixar animated film Soul, for which, alongside co-composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, he earned an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Film Award.
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