Jon Batiste puts out a Mozart album and two Monk albums on the same day

Jon Batiste's piano series began with Beethoven. Its first volume, “Beethoven Blues”, sat at the top of the Billboard classical chart for five straight weeks — not a number anyone plans for a solo piano record. The series is called, without ornament, the Batiste Piano Series, and the name says what it needs to: one man, one instrument. On August 14 it continues with three albums at once.

“Black Mozart” arrives on Decca as the second volume. Batiste runs Mozart's melodies through rags, stride, blues and stomps, and the titles — “Twinkle”, “Country Zart”, “Molto in Cayo Hueso” — say plainly that Mozart is being handled here without fear. The last single before release is “Shine”.

The same day brings volumes three and four on Verve: “Monk Meditations” and “Monk Movements”. Batiste says he wanted to stage a conversation between Monk and Mozart, with himself seated at the piano in the middle. Stated that way it sounds like a thesis. In practice it is two men who both wrote tunes built for one instrument and one pair of hands.

Batiste recently picked up his eighth Grammy, for “Big Money”, in the Americana album category. An artist coming off a prize like that is usually expected to go looking for the next one: another band, another guest, another genre. Instead he sat down at the instrument where there is nothing to hide behind and nobody else to blame. Three albums in one day is either confidence or stubbornness, and on solo piano you can hear which within two minutes.