Jon Batiste and St. James Infirmary

Photo from Jon Batiste's album
cover for Hollywood Africans

Friend and sometime collaborator Beverly Mills Keys alerted me to Jon Batiste's performance of "St. James Infirmary," from his 2018 album Hollywood Africans. This earned him a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Performance (Brandi Carlile won it).

As you will hear below, Batiste's interpretation is a reflective interior monologue with apparently simple piano, but unfolding with profound melancholy (and a touch of bravado), accentuated by an eerie and mournful chorus. 

He has recorded the song at least two other times. First, on his 2013 Social Music, and most recently on 2025's New Orleans Connection. All are well worth our attention.

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