In the new film Soul, Jamie Foxx provides his voice for Pixar's first Black lead character, jazz pianist Joe Gardner, but someone else is playing the piano. Jon Batiste, himself an acclaimed jazz pianist and bandleader for Stay Human, the house band for Stephen Colbert's Late Show, is actually the talent behind Joe's piano playing in the film. But beyond just recording the fancy finger work, Batiste's unique talents and experiences helped guide this animated celebration of jazz.
Soul tells the story of a middle-aged jazz musician Joe Gardner, who's just gotten his big break in the competitive New York City gigging scene when suddenly disaster strikes, and Joe finds himself dangling halfway between life and death. Determined not to die just as he was about to achieve his elusive purpose in life, Joe's soul must fight its way back to Earth to play with the Dorothea Williams Quartet and fulfill what he was born to do. But through some unlikely friends and exciting, existential twists and turns, he discovers that we're not born with a purpose, and that life means more than just whether or not we achieve our goals.
While Fox does his part in telling this story beautifully, it's Jon Batiste who provides much of the musical component. Batiste was brought onto the project as a musical consultant alongside veteran film score composers Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network). As Soul explores jazz, a genre indelibly tied to Black culture and history in America, an accomplished jazz pianist like Batiste provided the filmmakers a valuable sounding board in helping guide their work. Batiste has a slew of records under his belt along with multiple Grammy nominations, and he currently serves as the Music Director for the publication The Atlantic and Creative Director for The National Jazz Museum in Harlem on top of his Stay Human duties.
Batiste, Reznor, and Ross contributed a litany of songs and compositions to the film, with Reznor suggesting 6 movies' worth of music was composed for Soul. Batiste himself wrote original jazz pieces for the film to inform and accompany the story, while also providing musical consultation alongside fellow accomplished Black musicians Herbie Hancock, David Diggs, and voice of Soul character Curly, Questlove.
Beyond writing songs and consulting on the music for the film, Batiste was instrumental in the look and story of Soul. His fingers were direct references for animators constructing Joe's keyboard performances, and Batiste himself remarked at the way in which they captured the movement of his performances. He also reinforced a notion the filmmakers play with called "The Zone," describing the way in which he and other musicians enter into a state of extreme focus and absorption in what they're doing when they get into a groove. Co-writer and director Kemp Powers even revealed that Joe's story about the first time he's heard jazz was directly inspired by a conversation the team had with Batiste.
So, while it's Jamie Foxx's voice coming out of Joe Gardner's mouth in the new movie Soul, it's Jon Batiste's talent coming out of Joe's fingers. But more than that, Batiste's experiences as a Black jazz musician helped inform this first foray into Black stories for Pixar.