Ask Paul Batiste how many people in his family play music, he's soon exhausted counting all 10 toes and all 10 fingers. Eventually, the number sounds something like two dozen.
"If I round it off between people I forgot, 25," he laughs. "The youngest baby is my heart ... and everybody's saying he's got music in him."
All the Batistes, really, have music in them. The family, which comprises enough players and singers to have millions of possibilities for combinations of the Batiste Brothers Band, is responsible for raising artists like Jonathan Batiste, Jamal Batiste, David Batiste, Russell Batiste Jr. and Damon Batiste. Look further into the family tree, and they're also connected to others who came before, "Uncle" Lionel Batiste, Milton Batiste of the Olympia Brass Band and the family of Harold Battiste.
See photos of New Orleans' musical families, and watch them perform together.
In an interview with Stephen Colbert, Jonathan Batiste, who serves as the bandleader on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," talked about his sizable musical family.
"I have over 30 cousins that play," he said.
Paul Batiste, though, who operates as an unofficial historian for the family and who co-published a book about the same, has a theory as to how all that talent could come from one bloodline.
"I've thought about that a lot of times, because I know this is the reason: Captive audience," he laughs. "It's that simple."
Growing up "two people shy of a baseball team," Batiste and his six brothers were hearing their parents play music before they could sit at a piano or a set of drums themselves. His parents, Estella and Jean Batiste, met in New York but moved to New Orleans, where they owned a grocery store and a hardware store in the Ninth Ward. They bought the children their first instruments and, with neighbors who were likewise capable of playing, the Batiste boys were quickly indoctrinated into the New Orleans music scene. Four of them went on to become professional musicians.
"I used to get a call from Mom everyday, so we were constantly talking. ... Every Thanksgiving, we had seven boys there. If someone was in the military, they'd have to fly in," explains Batiste. "It provides a sort of energy."
Now, with new generations of Batistes, the family has grown exponentially, and family reunions are often spent making music. Performances themselves are reunions, whether they're at the Kids Tent at Jazz Fest or out-of-town spreading New Orleans music.
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