Jon Batiste warmed up for his 2023 New Orleans Jazz Fest gig with surprise Maple Leaf show

How did Jon Batiste prepare for his first-ever headlining slot on the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s main stage this weekend? With a loose, sweaty pop-up show Tuesday at the Maple Leaf Bar.

The limited supply of $50 tickets – the Oak Street bar’s capacity is less than 300 – sold out soon after the show was announced that morning.

People were packed in so tightly in front of the Maple Leaf’s low-slung stage that the musicians had trouble getting to it.

His bandmembers squeezed through the Maple Leaf’s bar area just before 9 p.m. Batiste plowed directly through the crowd from the back of the long, narrow, tin-roofed music room, literally rubbing shoulders with hometown fans.

He’s not around as much as he once was. He grew up in Kenner and graduated from St. Augustine High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts before moving to New York to study at Juilliard.

He came to national prominence as the bandleader on “The Late Show with Stephen Cobert.” His 2021 album “We Are” earned him an armload of Grammy Awards, including album of the year. He left the Colbert show in 2022.

Batiste appeared on the 2022 Jazz Fest’s commemorative poster and intended to perform at the festival that year. But then the pandemic pushed back the Carnegie Hall premiere of his “American Symphony” to the same week as Jazz Fest (in an ironic twist, he came down with COVID the week of the show and had to postpone it again).

This year he’s the Festival Stage closer on Friday. Perhaps wanting to get his musicians in a New Orleans state of mind, he booked the surprise date at the tiny Maple Leaf.

That this would be a different, more informal gig was evident as Batiste’s cousin, former Funky Meters drummer Russell Batiste, commandeered the stage to serve as unofficial emcee.

The band launched into “Soul Second Line,” a Russell Batiste composition that appeared on “Shakin’,” the second album by local band Papa Grows Funk. Jon Batiste, in a tight, long-sleeved black V-neck T-shirt set off by a bit of bling around his neck, seemed to enjoy his cousin’s exhortations.

Jon took a turn on bass, then turned the bass over to his father, Michael Batiste, a member of the funky family band the Batiste Brothers, who had managed to get onstage as the band segued into “Lil Liza Jane.”

“Lil Liza Jane” rolled right into “Iko Iko” as The Boyz, a Native American pow-wow group from Minnesota, contributed a round of percussive chants.

Jon took up a melodica and stood at the edge of the stage, playing in shadow as various bandmembers beat out rhythmic patterns. Jamison Ross, the jazz-based drummer and vocalist, took a turn onstage as the increasingly sweaty band kept the groove going.

Batiste finally landed back at the electric keyboard at center stage. He channeled the spirit of the late great New Orleans pianist James Booker, who spent many a night at the Maple Leaf, with classical flourishes en route to “St. James Infirmary.”

“I went down to the Maple Leaf Bar, and all my old friends were there,” Batiste sang, improvising a line in a voice not unlike Booker’s. He name-checked the ghosts of a litany of New Orleans greats: Booker, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Alvin Batiste and Kidd Jordan, the avant-jazz saxophonist and educator whose students included a young Jon Batiste.

The customized “St. James Infirmary” transitioned into “I Need You,” a standout track from Batiste’s 2021 Grammy-dominating album “We Are.” His band locked into “I Need You,” which paused for a percussion breakdown, then took off again.

They caught their collective breath with a relatively sedate “Sunny Side of the Street” that featured Batiste on melodica and crystalline vocals from Susan Carol.

After that brief pause, they jumped into another “We Are” standout, “Tell the Truth.” With Jon bearing down on electric guitar, they went for it, playing it fast and hard, totally dialed in and hitting on all cylinders.

And then it was over, barely an hour after it started. Batiste bid farewell with a reminder that the band would be at Jazz Fest on Friday, before he and the musicians hustled through the bar area into the cool air outside.

How much of what Batiste and company showcased at the Maple Leaf will become part of his Jazz Fest show remains to be seen. His Fair Grounds set will likely have a bit more structure to it, and more songs.

But if the Maple Leaf tune-up was any indication, he and his band are ready to go.