World
Jon Batiste's 'Beethoven Blues' transforms classical works into unique blues and gospel renditions
NEW YORK (AP) — When Grammy-award winner Jon Batiste was a kid, say, 9 or 10 years old, he moved between musical worlds — participating in local, classical piano competitions by day, then “gigging in night haunts in the heart of New Orleans.”
Free from the rigidity of genre, but also a dedicated student of it, his tastes wove into one another. He’d find himself transforming canonized classical works into blues or gospel songs, injecting them with the style-agnostic soulfulness he’s become known for. On Nov. 15, Batiste will release his first ever album of solo piano work, a collection of similar compositions.
Titled “Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1),” across 11 tracks, Batiste collaborates, in a way, with Beethoven, reimagining the German pianist’s instantly recognizable works into something fluid, extending across musical histories. Kicking off with the lead single “Für Elise-Batiste,” with its simple intro known the world over as one of the first pieces of music beginners learn on piano, he morphs the song into ebullient blues.
“My private practice has always been kind of in reverence to, of course, but also to demystify the mythology around these composers,” he told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Wednesday’s album release announcement.
The album was written through a process called “spontaneous composition,” which he views as a lost art in classical music. It’s extemporization; Batiste sits at the piano and interpolates Beethoven’s masterpieces to make them his own.
“The approach is to think about, if I were both in conversation with Beethoven, but also if Beethoven himself were here today, and he was sitting at the piano, what would the approach be?” he explained. “And blending both, you know, my approach to artistry and creativity and what my imagined approach of how a contemporary Beethoven would approach these works.”
There is a division, he said, in a popular understanding of music where “pristine and preserved and European” genres are viewed as more valuable than “something that’s Black and sweaty and improvisational.” This album, like most of his work, disrupts the assumption.
Contrary to what many might think, Batiste said that Beethoven’s rhythms are African. “On a basic technical level, he’s doing the thing that African music ingenuity brought to the world, which is he’s playing in both a two meter and a three meter at once, almost all the time. He’s playing in two different time signatures at once, almost exclusively,” he said.
Batiste performs during the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this year. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)
“When you hear a drum circle, you know, the African diasporic tradition of playing in time together, you’re hearing multiple different meters happening at once,” he continued. “In general, he’s layering all of the practice of classical music and symphonic music with this deeply African rhythmic practice, so it’s sophisticated.”
“Beethoven Blues” honors that complexity. “I’m deeply repelled by the classism and the culture system that we’ve set up that degrades some and elevates others. And ultimately the main thing that I’m drawn in by is how excellence transcends race,” he said.
When these songs are performed live, given their spontaneous nature, they will never sound exactly like they do on record, and no two sets will be the same. “If you were to come and see me perform these works 10 times in a row, you’d hear not only a new version of Beethoven, but you would also get a completely new concert of Beethoven,” he said.
“Beethoven Blues” is the first in a piano series — just how many will there be, and over what time frame, and what they will look like? Well, he’s keeping his options open.
“The themes of the piano series are going to be based on, you know, whatever is timely for me in that moment of my development, whatever I’m exploring in terms of my artistry. It could be another series based on a composer,” he said.
“Or it could be something completely different.”
HONOLULU (AP) — The on-and-off eruption that’s been dazzling residents and visitors on Hawaii’s Big Island for nearly a year resumed Tuesday as Kilauea volcano sent fountains of lava soaring 400 feet (122 meters) into the air.
The molten rock was confined within Kilauea’s summit caldera inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No homes were threatened.
It’s the 37th time Kilauea has shot lava since last December, when the current eruption began.
The latest lava display was preceded by sporadic spattering and overflows that began Friday. Each eruptive episode has lasted about a day or less. The volcano has paused for at least a few days in between.
In some cases, Kilauea’s lava towers have soared as high as skyscrapers. The volcano has generated such tall fountains in part because magma — which holds gases that are released as it rises — has been traveling to the surface through narrow, pipelike vents.
Kilauea is on Hawaii Island, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the state’s largest city, Honolulu, which is on Oahu.
It’s one of the world’s most active volcanoes and one of six active volcanoes in Hawaii.
World
Russia warns it may reject US-Ukraine peace plan if it fails to uphold Alaska summit ‘understandings’
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Moscow could reject the White House’s latest Ukraine peace deal framework if it doesn’t uphold the “spirit and letter” of the understandings reached at the August Alaska summit between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Lavrov said at a news conference Tuesday that Russia is awaiting the updated version of the Trump administration’s latest peace plan aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
He warned that if the terms of the “key understandings” are “extinguished” then the situation would become “fundamentally different.”
Russia has maintained its maximalist demands in negotiations, insisting Ukraine be barred from joining NATO and required to give up the rest of the Donbas as part of any peace deal.
RUSSIA BOMBARDS KYIV, KILLING AT LEAST 6, AS TRUMP PEACE PLAN MOVES FORWARD
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivers a speech for heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Russia in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 19, 2022. (Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool/AP Photo)
John Hardie, the deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia Program, told Fox News Digital Moscow’s intransigence over the past 10 months has been the main obstacle to Trump’s diplomatic efforts.
“The United States has really shot itself in the foot by kind of flip-flopping between strategies. One month you’re trying to pressure the Russians and saying they’re the obstacle to peace. The next minute you’re trying to, you know, force their terms on Kyiv,” said Hardie.
“What we really need is sustained military support for Ukraine and economic pressure on Russia, and Putin has to realize that neither the Ukrainian military nor Western, especially U.S., resolve, are going to falter.”
Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine Sept. 7, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)
Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman told “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Tuesday he remains skeptical about an end to the war, arguing the United States lacks the leverage to compel Moscow to halt its invasion.
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“Vladimir Putin, his strategic objective has always been to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine. He’ll engage in negotiations, but he does it to ensure that he’s asserting the primacy of Russia in his self-designated sphere of influence,” said Hoffman. “I just don’t see any evidence that Russia is going to pause in their relentless attacks on Ukraine.”
Ukrainian soldiers from the 115th Brigade Mortar Unit conduct mortar training as members of the Anti-UAV unit test an FPV drone inhibitor in Lyman, Ukraine. (Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Ukraine agreed Tuesday to a peace deal to end the war with Russia, but some details still need to be finalized, a U.S. official told Fox News.
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U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi Monday and Tuesday to discuss the framework for a Ukraine peace deal. The U.S. official said a Ukrainian delegation was also in Abu Dhabi and in contact with Driscoll and his team.
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will travel to Moscow on Friday to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to media reports.
The information came from Hungarian government sources who were involved in the preparations of the trip, according to investigative central European outlet VSquare.
The Hungarian government has not confirmed the visit at this time, with Budapest saying it would inform the public about Orbán’s programme in due time.
The agenda for the meeting is not yet known. But Orbán has maintained ties to Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the two leaders have kept in regular touch, meeting in person three times since early 2022.
The Hungarian premier has repeatedly stated he was in favour of an immediate ceasefire and peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Orbán called on the European Union to support Washington’s peace efforts and engage in direct negotiations with Russia.
‘”Europeans must immediately and unconditionally support the peace initiative of the President of the United States,” Orbán said in a letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday.
“In addition to supporting the US president, we must, without delay, launch autonomous and direct diplomatic negotiations with Russia,” he added.
Europeans ‘prefer to continue the war,’ Orbán says
Hungary is one of the few European countries that imports large quantities of Russian oil and gas, despite the European Union’s efforts to decouple from Moscow’s fossil fuels.
During a visit to Washington in November, Orbán secured exemptions from Washington’s secondary tariffs targeting Russia’s oil exporters Rosneft and Lukoil.
Addressing US President Donald Trump, Orbán also blamed the European Union for what he said was its support of the war.
“Your peace efforts are splendid, but the problem is Brussels, the Europeans. They prefer to continue the war, because they still think Ukraine can win on the front line,” Orbán said.
Earlier, Trump announced direct talks with Putin in Budapest, only for the meeting to be called off by Washington, citing a lack of agreement with Moscow.
Following the leak of the US-Russia 28-point plan last week, said to be strongly in favour of Moscow, Ukrainian and European representatives have met with their US counterparts for further talks, followed by a counterproposal offering more guarantees for Ukraine.
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