“The Uneasy Tour 2024: Purifying the Airwaves for the People”
Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (piano, guitar, melodica, saxophone, percussion), composer and bandleader… Jon Batiste is an accomplished artist to be reckoned with. Along with being the music director of The Atlantic and the creative director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, he is a Grammy Award, Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA film award winner. And in addition to his own accomplished albums, Batiste has recorded with the likes of Prince, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Ray to name but a few…
Supporting Batiste’s latest World Music Radio album, the 23-date North American “The Uneasy Tour 2024: Purifying the Airwaves for the People” outing (Batiste’s first-ever headlining tour) kicked off Feb. 16, 2024 at the 2,778-seat Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, OR. The tour is supported by Medina, MN-based Farber Sound. We caught up with the sold-out tour when Batiste performed in San Francisco for two shows.
The View from FOH
For Randy Hawkins, this is his second run as FOH engineer with Jon Batiste, noting that everyone’s been very welcoming and supportive and he’s loving the experience. “The band on this run is completely different than the one we had in Japan, so it’s keeping me on my toes.” Hawkins has been with the hip hop duo Atmosphere from Minneapolis, MN as tour manager, production manager and FOH engineer for some time. In the past, Hawkins has mixed a multitude of Mike Patton Projects (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, Faith No More), as well as for Bob Mould, Hank Williams III and others. He has also worked at First Avenue in Minneapolis and the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, MN as the FOH mixer over a 20-year span.
Hawkins has been mixing on the DiGiCo SD12 for the Batiste tour. “We have a limited amount of space for production and that was the biggest format where we could fit at least two screens, which is imperative for this show. I was on a DiGiCo SD7 when we were in Japan, but it’s physically too large for our current production of a two-trailer situation.” Hawkins had a DiGiCo Quantum 225 all year before that and liked it, but it only had the one touch screen. “With the channel count and how the gig is done, I needed as many channels on the surface as possible. Last year I made the switch from a lifetime with the Midas to a DiGiCo console, and while I liked the HD96, the functionality of the SD12 made sense for a higher channel count.”
Hawkins uses 56 inputs from the stage. “Watching Jon and the band work has been an amazing thing to see, and I would love to have at least 20 more channels to be able to add things freely. Being maxed out at 56 means some inputs need to be doubled-up — for instance, the Keytar and the acoustic are currently in the same input (split at the console). For outputs I’m using L/R/S/F plus two matrix delays sends for outfills, stereo record plus a 64-channel Reaper recording for the band and virtual sound check. I’m also using an analog rack local into an SD rack L/R/S/F which is AES from a Meyer Galaxy rack to open the analog local I/O.”
Hawkins says his mixing technique is more of a live feel vs a studio feel for the show. “I want the audience to be present with what is going on stage at every moment. Jon is spontaneous, and I need to leave all instruments ‘on’ onstage, in case it gets picked up and played for a few bars. I usually EQ the room to the Steinway grand piano, so it can remain on and up for the entire show and I don’t miss anything. I have been using the multi-band compressor on a ton of inputs; it helps take the edge off anything happening on stage.”
Hawkins notes he’s not a Waves user, but uses the DiGiCo onboard FX, compressors and gates. “The Digitube Bias helped out quite a bit with Jon requesting to ‘dirty’ up his vocal, and it sounds great! I like the grit it gives to the vocals, making them stick out, and it gives kind of a preferred ‘old school’ sound to them.” Added to that, Hawkins has two Empirical Labs EL8X Distressors on Jon’s two vocal lines that even everything out and add another layer of grit. “We also use a Drawmer 1968 bus compressor for L/R to take off the edges and add real tube warming to the show. The Drawmer also has a big bottom feature that is great for the 808 kick drum and upright bass. I have Large Hall from the desk for melodica and sax, Warm Drum from the desk for toms, snare and Sprinkle on tracks and piano. I’m still experimenting with the Piano Enhancer on the desk.”
On this run, for a number of shows, Hawkins has been using house P.A. systems. He notes he did a tour a couple years back with Atmosphere and Cypress Hill where they used a d&b audiotechnik KSL with 20 B22 subs supplied by Brown Note Productions, and he was spoiled for life. “We did Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado with this rig versus the usual GSL system, and it was fantastic. I have an L-Acoustic K2 in my venue the Palace Theatre with eight KS28 subs per side, and I love that also. First Avenue, the venue I have worked at for years, just installed the new L-Acoustic L2, and I’m loving that as well,” he added.
“I have been very lucky to be added to this fantastic touring party — from production manager and monitor engineer Bryan Mengy to A2 patch tech Jake Wagner and everyone else on the tour. I spent two weeks of rehearsal getting pointers from Jay Pearlman, the A1 of the Minnesota orchestra, and Adam Bufis, our other FOH engineer; they were both an invaluable wealth of information to make this gig shine.”
Monitor World
Monitor engineer Bryan Mengy started working with Batiste in September of 2022. His friend Titus of Freq Productions along with Unreal Systems brought Mengy in as a monitor engineer, starting at the Nashville Pilgrimage Fest. “I did a few filler dates here and there, but it never got solidified until Rob ‘Cubby’ Colby came along and brought me in again to be his monitor engineer for the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Since then, I have been Jon’s production manager and monitor engineer full time, and it’s been nothing but a wild ride ever since. Depending on the show, I will also mix FOH, but my default position is monitors.”
Mengy’s choice of mixing console depends on the band lineup and what Jon’s needs are. “Some days I’m on a DiGiCo and the others I’m on a Yamaha. I think through the infrastructure for every single show, which changes drastically from show to show because Jon changes from show to show. Up until this tour, not one show has been remotely the same over the past few years. One day it could be a 50-piece band/choir/orchestra, the others could just be a trio or even a solo performance. I’m not married to any one console or format. I try to accommodate our FOH engineer’s taste first, then implement what will or won’t work in monitor world. Then it comes down to trailer pack, channel/mix count and budget… which we all know is always a Tetris game. For this tour, I’m on a classic Yamaha CL5. Over the years, it’s always been my default. I can mix blind on this thing because it’s simple… one screen, dedicated pots and always reliable with stage racks.”
Jon’s piano setup is pretty straightforward, notes Mengy. “We use three DPA 4099 with magnetic clips. These have also been my go-to for mixing piano over the past decade. Very balanced and very flexible to mount anywhere. I try to make things as easy and convenient as possible for our team without sacrificing quality. One thing I’m looking forward to in the future is to use the MIDI option on our Steinway. That will not only give us a digital piano option that we can blend in if we choose, but it will also give us the ability to use the digital piano channel signal as a key input into our noise gates on our live microphones inside the piano. The moment Jon stops playing, it will trigger our gate to close, thus cleaning up all that signal everywhere in the house and onstage. It will definitely be a game-changer when this is implemented.”
Mengy says they have always used a Shure Axient AD2 handheld mic and have been pretty married to a Shure KSM9 capsule throughout the past year up until the Grammys. “Our friend John Eley turned us on to the sE Electronics V7 MC1X capsule, and we have been using those ever since. My default will always be a KSM9, but I have definitely been liking the overall intimacy of the sE. But it all depends on the show. I feel the KSM9 wins in a piano and mic or trio performance. However, with 66 other inputs on stage, the sE is handling very well with the full band.”
Batiste is currently on a set of Minnesota’s locally grown Alclair IEMs. “He just got two fresh sets of Alclair’s Electro 6 drivers. I’ve been on Alclair RSM models which have been my favorite up until I recently upgraded to the Electros myself. They feel the exact same as the RSM sonically, but they just have a little extra thump in the butt. Our entire team is on Alclair, and it’s been nothing but smiles all around.”
The gig can dictate what console Mengy is using, but almost 98% of the time, all his processing is done on the console. “I absolutely hate when gear fails. I try to minimize that. I can’t tell you how many times a plug-in server has failed or some piece of outboard gear has failed. Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love the gear out there, and there are so many pieces I wish I had, but at the same time I love my job and I want to keep it that way. Regarding processing, I always have a slap delay on Jon’s vocal. On his song ‘Cry,’ that is the exact tone I go for as a starting point of pure vibe. I then have a Galactic Reverb plug-in cued up for his vocal and harmonica chain, especially for his song ‘Calling Your Name.’ Some people have said my mixes are too clean but powerful at the same time. I try to make everybody’s ears hit as hard as possible, like a train hitting you in the chest, but making you dance and get funky all at the same time. Our show is one-of-a-kind, and I try to make the musicians as comfortable as possible so their art can come through at its purest, rather than them thinking about what needs to change in the mix. That said, I tend to keep everything in the console, so when we move from venue to venue or vendor to vendor, I know exactly what I’m getting.”
If Mengy were to use outboard gear, he says a pair of Distressors for vocals would be it. “They are the Benz of compressors. If I were mixing FOH, then it would be a completely different question. I would have a rack with quite a few choice pieces, Distressors, GML8200, SSL BUSS+, and I’ve been meaning to get a Rupert Neve MBT into my rack. It’s been on my list now for quite some time, and I just haven’t had a chance to grab one. I grew up mixing in the studio, and the list is long of how much gear I would want to bring on the road with me… certain factors, however, prevent me from doing that.”
Mengy feels he has a comfortable working monitor world. “It consists of two racks (SD and RIO stage racks), one double wide (RF) and a split/WB. Two other workboxes and two trunks of cables, and that’s it. Our system designers Dave Farber, Jay Flemming, Cory Deming and the entire team at Farber Sound really knocked this rig out of the park.” A huge concern on this tour for the crew was weight and size in order to fit it all in a 15’ trailer behind a bus, but Mengy says every day is a breeze for the simple fact that the crew dedicated so much time into the prep of this package to make it all happen smoothly.
Teamwork Makes it Happen
Mengy loves the ease of deployment on this tour. “All of our looms and power are super tight. I love that our guitar / keyboard world is in our network. I can split frequencies to all our backline instruments without having to bother our backline tech. I have my best friends as teammates out with me on this tour. These guys have been some of my oldest friends since childhood, and I’m so blessed and honored that Jon has entrusted our team to help bring the healing power of music to the world. God continues to empower this camp with joy, and I hope that it rubs off on the people that come and experience it.”
The Uneasy tour includes a stop in the Big Easy for the New Orleans Jazz Festival on April 26, with more shows through the end of the month. It wraps up June 15 at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, TN.
AUDIO CREW
- Sound Company: Farber Sound
- FOH Engineer: Randy Hawkins
- Monitor Engineer: Bryan Mengy
- Monitor/Patch Tech: Jake Wagner
- Tour Manager: Chiara Bonfatti
- Production Manager: Bryan Mengy
- Stage Manager: Keene Monahan
- Backline Tech: Mark Puder
- Lighting Director: Bradley Solheim
FOH GEAR
- P.A. Systems: Venue Supplied
- FOH Console: Digico SD12 w/SD Rack
- Outboard: DiGiCo onboard FX, Digitube Bias, (2) Empirical Labs EL8X Distressors, Drawmer 1968 Bus Compressor
MON GEAR
- Monitor Console: Yamaha CL5 w/RIO 3224
- Outboard: Numerous in-console effects/plug-ins
- Vocal Mics: Shure Axient wireless KSM9 capsules; sE Electronics V7 MC1X capsules
- IEMs: Alclair Electros 6 earpieces, Shure PSM1000 hardware
