Jon Batiste - Monk Movements (Vinyl)

Standard Black Vinyl LP

This is the standard black vinyl edition of Monk Movements, the fourth volume of Jon Batiste's Batiste Piano Series, issued by Verve Records on August 14, 2026. It is a single LP: six pieces run across side A, and "Light Green Reverie" and the closing "Monk Movement" have side B to themselves. Verve also offered a Transparent Burnt color pressing as a direct-to-consumer exclusive, some copies with a signed art card; this is the standard black LP.

Where the series' earlier volumes carried classical repertoire into jazz and blues, Monk Movements runs the other way. The label's release announcement describes it turning Thelonious Monk's standards into contemporary classical compositions for solo piano, and Verve's store copy speaks of works "imbued with classical structure and post modern grandeur." The program takes in "In Walked Bud," "Blue Monk," "Ugly Beauty" and "Brilliant Corners." "Susu's Back In Town" was the album's first single, issued in July 2026 together with "Always Know" from the companion album Monk Meditations.

Both Monk albums trace back to Batiste's student years at Juilliard, where, after first discovering Monk, he listened to him for a year straight, an influence the announcement follows as far back as his 2006 set Live in New York: At the Rubin Museum of Art. Batiste has said Monk takes music "of the highest complexity" and presents it so that anybody can connect to it. He pairs Monk with Mozart as composers who each built on, and pushed against, a towering predecessor: Bach for Mozart, Duke Ellington for Monk.

The Batiste Piano Series began in 2024 with Beethoven Blues, which topped Billboard's Classical Albums chart. Monk Movements arrived on the same day as two further volumes, Black Mozart on Decca Records US and Monk Meditations on Verve, taking the series to four. Batiste, born in Metairie, Louisiana, into the Batiste family of New Orleans musicians, shared the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Pixar's Soul with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, won the Grammy for Album of the Year with We Are, and took Best Americana Album at the 68th Grammy Awards for Big Money, his eighth Grammy.

Tracklist

Side A

1. In Walked Bud
2. Blue Monk
3. Ugly Beauty
4. Susu's Back In Town
5. Red Beans
6. Brilliant Corners

Side B

1. Light Green Reverie
2. Monk Movement

Complete the Collection (3)

• Black Mozart - Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 2
• Monk Meditations