He recently unveiled his bluesy interpretations of the works of Beethoven, and now New Orleans’ own Jon Batiste has given us a suitably jazzy rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at Super Bowl LIX.
Performing at The Big Easy’s Caesars Superdome, Batiste was happy to embellish the US National Anthem with some soulful piano licks, but we suspect that many electronic music gearheads may have been distracted by the three products sitting in front of Batiste on his Yamaha grand’s lid.
From left to right, fans will have seen a Soundforce SFC-8 controller, Native Instruments Maschine+ and a Novation LaunchControl XL, all in custom casings to match the piano. Strangely, though, it appeared that only the Maschine got used - Batiste looked like he was triggering something from it right at the start of the performance.
Still, it was a nice moment in the spotlight for the SFC-8 in particular. This dedicated Jupiter-8 soft synth MIDI controller from 2022 - designed to work with Arturia’s Jup-8 V and TAL’s J-8 in particular - is very much a niche product, but it’s probably now been seen by in excess of 100 million people.
The Launch Control XL, meanwhile, is an Ableton Live controller, so maybe there was some DAW stuff going on in the background that we didn’t get to see.
Of course, the big musical spot of the Super Bowl was taken by Kendrick Lamar, who performed a 13-minute set that featured an appearance from SZA and saw him perform Not Like Us, his Grammy-winning diss track from 2024.
There was also a pre-game performance from Lady Gaga, who sang her Top Gun: Maverick song Hold My Hand on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street in tribute to the city and those who died in the terror attack that took place there in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
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