“Burgundy.”

Say it out loud.

How you say IT actually says a lot about YOU, and how Jon Batiste’s “Freedom” will hit you.

If your emphasis is on the last syllable, like the color burgundy, you’ll be absolutely delighted by his presentation of the lush landscape and people of New Orleans’ Treme and Marigny.

If it’s on the middle syllable—”bur-GUN-dy”—like the street, then welcome home.

In just four minutes, bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Juilliard master in jazz studies, Pixar composer, five-time Grammy winner, and of course, native son Jon Batiste escorts us down the Crescent City’s oldest Black neighborhoods like a red carpet-turned-Soul-Train-line and it. is. GLORIOUS.

I was introduced to that second, locals-only pronunciation before I knew there was a difference. My grandfather, Leon Bertrand, pronounced both words like Burgundy Street, and had a quirk of announcing to no one in particular (at least that I can recall, since we all knew) that he was from Bunkie, Louisiana. Both sides of my family have deep roots in Texas and Louisiana, so naturally, Juneteenth—in recognition of the day enslaved people in Texas were finally notified that for two years they had been free—means a great deal to me. I’m certain those people sang, and that their voices, loose from the fear of being punished, silenced or worse, truly embodied the sound of freedom. The way he and his chorus sing that word here makes me feel like this legacy means something to Jon Batiste too.

Jon is known for his joyous and effervescent personality, and you’ll see it in spades in “Freedom.” Honestly, every aspect of the song and video feels like someone looked at ordinary things and said, “YES, BUT IN FREEDOM.” The wardrobe, the vehicles, the choreography, the locations and the cast are what you’d imagine we all might be without our self-esteem issues and the burdens of other people’s opinions. How Jon & his crew manage to achieve this, but still bring New Orleans to the screen authentically is what catapults “Freedom” from a cheery anthem to a cultural masterpiece. “Beyond any financial gain or level of scaling, music is sacred stuff, man. And I feel almost called to bring it to people in these hard times. If I don’t, who will?,” he asked the Los Angeles Times.

Some of New Orleans’ sights, scenes and characters—like the Saints Fleur-de-Lis drum buckets and the gold-painted statue buskers—will be immediately recognizable, others are the kind of deep dives that let you know this is really art for the folks back home. The historic figures of the Allen Toussaint mural on Claiborne, the proud purple and gold St. Augustine High School Marching Band, the Treme Second Line Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins’ Treme Mother-in-Law Lounge, and the New Orleans Masking Indians in all their suited glory (including the fabulous Queen Tahj), each get starring roles in “Freedom” that an outsider might overlook as terrific location scouting and fantastic costuming. Jon is pulling back the curtain on Black New Orleans just for you, his treat.

I can’t wrap this without a quick touch on the sounds here, and where to even begin? Jon spends most of “Freedom” in a soulful falsetto punctuated by funk-jazz horns and a gospel-reminiscent call-and-response of “Freeeeeeeee-ee-dom!” It makes his sound all the more rich and unexpected when he drops into his lower register for a dreamy interlude, and then bounces back up into a blues keyboard- and tambourine-driven Wobble. Between the music and the visual—completely New Orleans cast and staffed, by the way—this is Jon’s unmistakable statement to the world: there is nothing he’s incapable of with his city behind him and their unchained freedom.

---