Jon Batiste joins forces with the almighty Dap-Kings for a 2018 “Soul Showdown.”

After 16 years, the funk/soul collective Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings simply became the Dap-Kings.

The group’s beloved, larger-than-life lead singer namesake – a former Rikers Island corrections officer who didn’t become a frontwoman singing lead in a band until she was 40 – lost her life to pancreatic cancer in 2016.

The outfit recorded their 2002 debut Dap Dippin’ With Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings in a Williamsburg basement, the beginning of what would become Daptone Records. In those early years, the band sold records out of saxophonist Neal Sugarman’s Brooklyn kitchen.

The ensuing years – minus Jones’ health problems – added up to a soul fairytale featuring a steady stint of horn-heavy best-selling releases, including Naturally, 100 Days, 100 Nights andGive the People What They Want, which scored a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album in 2014.

After Jones’ passing, the Dap-Kings took some time off before emerging in the spring of this year as part of a collaboration with musical wunderkind Jon Batiste for a nine-date, New Orleans-focused festival tour, which includes a Monterey Jazz Festival performance.

“We are thrilled to be returning to the stage and could not have found a more fitting collaborator than Jon, with whom we share a deep love and respect for New Orleans musical roots,” Dap-Kings bassist/bandleader Bosco Mann said in a statement regarding the merger. “[Batiste] is a distinctly talented dude with a rare feel for that music, and we can’t wait to tear up these tunes together.”

Batiste, the bandleader/musical director for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, also serves as music director of The Atlantic and as creative director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. The music prodigy received his master’s degree from Juilliard, but picked up a deeper understanding of music theory while performing impromptu shows with his band, Stay Human, on New York City subway platforms.

“The subway is the social consciousness of New York,” Batiste says. “That’s where you see all 162 cultures that are New York City in one place. It’s a beautiful place to play because you never have anything like that.”

Batiste and Stay Human even recorded an album, MY NY, entirely on the subway, incporating sounds of the city.

Batiste and Stay Human’s Social Music is a musical collage that reflects New York’s cultural melting pot. The record spent more than a month as the No. 1 jazz album in the world on Billboard and iTunes jazz charts.

“Express Yourself” is an original musical odyssey that radiates with a mix of funk, hip-hop, gospel and jazz. “The Jazz Man Speaks,” featuring an Alan Lomax Library of Congress recording of jazz pioneer/bandleader Jelly Roll Morton reflecting on the roots of American music, drifts over Batiste’s take on ragtime.

“[Morton] lays it out in an eloquent way and doesn’t alienate anyone,” Batiste says. “It talks about the beauty of the music and how it’s a universal language that can move people, and comes from this rich American tradition. It’s a profound statement about ‘What is jazz?’ and that’s been debated for years.”

At the Monterey Jazz Festival, there is no need for debate. For more than 60 years, it’s simply been about music that moves people. And as Batiste noted in a statement announcing the Jazz Fest date, “I’m suspect of anyone who isn’t moved by [the Dap-Kings’] live show.”

NEW ORLEANS MEETS BROOKLYN: JON BATISTE WITH THE DAP-KINGS 10:10pm Saturday, Sept. 22. Jimmy Lyons Arena Stage.