Jon Batiste’s San Diego concert with Andra Day a triumph and a disappointment

So much was done so exceptionally well during Jon Batiste’s San Diego performance Friday night that the first two-thirds qualified as a strong contender for concert-of-the-year consideration.

Alas, the final third of the show at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park was marred by poor pacing, an inexcusably late (and too-brief) guest vocal appearance by Andra Day, and a subsequent rush to finish that saw Batiste and his band play 10 minutes past The Shell’s 10 p.m. curfew.

Grammy-winner Andra Day confesses: ‘I get nervous every time I step on stage.’

The result was a concert that delighted and disappointed, soared and sputtered, although — happily — the heady highs outweighed the lamentable lows.

Batiste, 38, is something of a modern-day Renaissance man, as befits a Juilliard-trained classical pianist who hails from one of New Orleans’ most storied jazz families and can play many styles with impressive elan and authority.

Equally gifted as a singer, pianist, songwriter and genre-blurring musical explorer, he rose to national prominence during his seven-year run as the musical director and band leader on TV’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

In order to focus on his solo career, Batiste left “Colbert” in August 2022. That was barely four months after he became the first Black artist in 14 years to win Album of the Year honors at the Grammy Awards. A seven-time Grammy winner, he also earned an Oscar and a Golden Globe for composing the jazz-driven score to the Disney-Pixar film “Soul.”

Performing at The Shell Friday for a loudly enthusiastic audience of 4,138, Batiste began by declaring his mission statement for the evening. “This is a celebration of life. We’re going to heal you,” he said. Those sentiments were reinforced by a banner that hung over the stage. It read: “This is the circus of love. Under our tent there is revival and joy.”

Seated at a grand piano, Batiste opened with a 25-minute solo set that showcased his charismatic stagecraft, alternately dazzling and earthy keyboard work, soaring vocals and ability to fuse different styles into a wonderfully engaging musical gumbo.

His first selection was “5th Symphony in Congo Square.” A standout track from his 2024 album, “Beethoven Blues: Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1,” it found him deftly combing the opening movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and early rock ‘n’ roll. Batiste did so with such skill, joy and verve, his playing at times suggested a heady jam session by Keith Jarrett, Fats Waller, Yuja Wang and Allen Toussaint.

Batiste was equally impressive with his stellar reinvention of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which juxtaposed moments of tender reflection with exuberant stride and barrelhouse piano romps worthy of a New Orleans speakeasy. Then came his sublime version of the 1967 Louis Armstrong gem “What a Wonderful World,” which showcased Batiste’s supple falsetto vocals and his deft interjection of a snippet of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

Had Batiste concluded his solo set at this point, it would have been a triumph. Instead, he delivered a splendid medley of Leonard Cohen’s elegiac “Hallelujah,” Tupac Shakur’s gritty “Changes” (which features the piano motif from Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is”), and The Impressions’ perpetually uplifting “It’s All Right.”

It was then that his brassy, three-woman, six-man band joined Batiste on stage and ripped into his propulsive 2021 rave-up, “I Need You,” which had the crowd on its feet and featured exhilarating, Etta James-inspired vocal swoops and wails by Desiree Washington. Performing with a winning combination of in-the-moment fluidity and pinpoint precision, the star of the night and his group instantly ignited.

The concert kicked into even higher gear with the next three selections, all presented in extended form. They included: “American Requiem” (the Grammy-winning song Batiste co-wrote for Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album); “Freedom” (which found him adroitly channeling Prince and James Brown, including on a series of high-octane, “soul power!” call-and-response vocal exchanges with the audience); and “Big Money” (the dance-happy, thought-provoking title track from his ninth and newest album).

So far, so great.

But things faltered notably with the next number, “Petrichor,” a touching, save-the-planet environmental plea anchored by a snappy beat that evoked the Mardi Gras staple “Iko Iko.” On Batiste’s “Big Money” album, “Petrichor” clocks in at a crisp 2 minutes, 38 seconds. On Friday, he and his band stretched the song out to nine momentum-stifling minutes that included a violin hoedown that added little to the proceedings.

Only then, 19 minutes before The Shell’s 10 p.m. curfew, did Batiste finally bring out Day, the Grammy- and Golden Globe-winning singer and actress who grew up in San Diego. Together, they did an elongated, 10-minute version of “Lean On My Love,” their recent gospel-fueled duet.

Day soared, but she and Batiste repeated the chorus so many times that it ultimately diluted the song’s potent message of resiliency and compassion in times of despair. Their decision to segue from “Lean” into a lively excerpt from the Chick Corea Latin-jazz classic “Spain” was intriguing, at least in theory. But “Spain” would have worked much better had it been performed in full, on its own at a concert not facing an impending curfew.

Batiste and Day then sat down to deliver a luminous, voice-and-piano rendition of the 1939 Billie Holiday gem “God Bless the Child,” which Day previously performed in her Oscar-nominated title role in the 2021 film “The United State vs. Billie Holiday.”

It was the most moving and musically intimate moment of the night and Day earned a sustained ovation for her impassioned vocal performance. But the moment the song concluded — only three minutes before the curfew — she had to dash off the stage.

Considering that Day was co-billed at the concert, it was a major disappointment she was featured on only two numbers and that she was unable to perform her signature song, “Rise Up.” Had Batiste taken the stage at 8:15 p.m. Friday, as originally scheduled, instead of going on 22 minutes late at 8:37 p.m., Day would not have been relegated to a truncated, two-song cameo.

With the clock ticking, Batiste launched into a two-minute solo take on Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill,” followed by a sing-along version of his touching 2023 ballad, “Butterfly.” His band rejoined him at 10:02 p.m. and, after completing “Butterfly” with an overly long guitar solo, they concluded with a rollicking Dixieland-jazz rendition of “You Are My Sunshine” that saluted Batiste’s Louisiana roots.

With better timing — perhaps singer-songwriter Diana Silvers’ very pleasant opening set could have been scheduled for 7 p.m. instead of 7:30? — and a bigger slot for Day, Jon Batiste’s concert would have been an unqualified triumph. Here’s hoping his timing will be better the next time he performs here.