Stay Human | |
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Official band logo
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Background information | |
Origin | New York City |
Genres | |
Years active |
2004–present
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Website | www |
Members |
Jon Batiste Phil Kuehn Joe Saylor Eddie Barbash Ibanda Ruhumbika Michael Thurber Grace Kelly Maddie Rice Louis Cato Louis Fouche |
Stay Human is a band founded and led by New Orleans musician Jon Batiste. They are the house band for Stephen Colbert's late-night talk show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015.
Jon Batiste met fellow musicians Joe Saylor and Phil Kuehn in 2004 while attending The Juilliard School. Batiste began performing in New York City in 2005 with Saylor and Kuehn as a trio with Kuehn on bass and Saylor on drums. They were joined by two more musicians: Eddie Barbash on alto saxophone and Ibanda Ruhumbika on tuba. They then became known as Stay Human. In 2013, they released their first full-length album, Social Music, through Razor & Tie along with the single "Express Yourself," co-written and produced with Austin Bis.
On June 4, 2015, Stephen Colbert announced on his YouTube channel that Stay Human and its bandleader will be the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Batiste and Stay Human's "stirring" performance of "Express Yourself" on Colbert's previous TV show The Colbert Report in 2014 was connected with Colbert's decision to name Batiste as the bandleader on The Late Show.
In February 2016, the band released an album entitled "The Late Show EP."