We Are (Jon Batiste album)
We Are (stylized in all caps) is the eighth studio album by American musician Jon Batiste. It was released on Verve Records on March 19, 2021. In April 2022, the album won Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, making Batiste the first Black artist to win the award since Herbie Hancock in 2008. The album earned Batiste eight nominations in total, winning four. Background. Batiste began working on the album in late 2019, making it in his dressing room over six days in September and finishing it by mid-2020. While largely  written and recorded prior to the events of 2020, the album's lyrical and thematic content reflects such events as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and his involvement in 2020, leading Black Lives Matter protests in New York after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. On June 12, 2020, he released the single "We Are", featuring the band from his New Orleans alma mater, the St. Augustine High School Marching 100. As part of Record Store Day 2020, Batiste released a limited edition EP titled "We Are: Roots & Traditions". The album also features Mavis Staples, Zadie Smith , PJ Morton, and Trombone Shorty. Speaking to "Atwood Magazine", Batiste described "We Are" as "a representation of genreless music that's just about the story" and "a culmination of my life to this point". Batiste released a deluxe edition of the album on October 15, 2021. Awards and nominations. Grammy Awards