Met Gala: Jon Batiste plays saxophone
Jon Batiste serenades guests on the Met Gala red carpet with his saxophone playing.
Jon Batiste is taking an unexpected break from touring due to “some personal circumstances.”
The eight-time Grammy winner on Tuesday, Aug. 11, canceled three upcoming performances. In a message shared by New Haven, Connecticut’s Westville Music Bowl, Batiste wrote, “As I navigate some personal circumstances, I unfortunately need to cancel a portion of my upcoming performance dates including at the Westville Music Bowl on August 13th.”
The 39-year-old’s Aug. 14 performance at Philadelphia’s TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts and Aug. 15 show at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium are also canceled, according to the venues’ websites, which also shared the same note from the jazz musician.
“As we continue the rollout and release of my new albums, Monk Meditations and Monk Movements, my team and I are finding new ways and opportunities to share live music with you,” Batiste’s statement continued. “There’s much more to come, and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.”
Ticketholders should automatically receive refunds through their original point of purchase, according to the venues.
Batiste is still scheduled to perform at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on Aug. 20, according to his website.
USA TODAY has reached out to Batiste’s representatives for comment.
The Oscar- and Emmy-winning musician, who blends jazz, classical, roots and R&B, is due to release several collections, including “Black Mozart (Batiste Piano Series Vol. 2),” on Aug. 14 after initially announcing a June release date. Batiste is also due to release “Monk Meditations (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 3)” and “Monk Movements (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 4)” on Aug. 14.
The records follow the release of the former “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” bandleader’s ninth album, “Big Money,” in August 2025 and “Beethoven Blues,” which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart after coming out in November 2024.
Jon Batiste’s cancellations come amid wife’s third battle with cancer
Batiste’s wife of four years, Suleika Jaouad, shared on Aug. 2 that her “leukemia is progressing” and as a result she would be undergoing “a more intensive regimen of chemo.”
The journalist, who was first diagnosed with cancer at age 22, experienced a recurrence in 2022 after being in remission for a decade. She learned in August 2024 that her cancer had returned for a third time.
“She’s doing well in that she’s doing treatment indefinitely,” Batiste told USA TODAY in an October 2025 interview. “But she’s very much 100% living her life. You wouldn’t even know what she was going through.”
He continued, “The Bible says life and death is in the power of the tongue and we speak life in this house.”