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| 1. | Love Is Here to Stay
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| 2. | Little Clown
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| 3. | Zealously
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| 4. | On the Sunny Side of the Street
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| 5. | I Mean You
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| 6. | Vocation
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| 7. | On Green Dolphin Street
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| 8. | Little Waltz
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| 9. | E
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Jazz / Vocal
Traditional Pop
Swing
Harry Connick Jr. - Piano
Ron Carter - Bass
Reginald Veal - Bass
Herlin Riley - Drums
Barely out of his teens, Harry Connick, Jr. possesses a musical track record that many artists his senior would envy. Credits include work with the Marsalises, Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, George Shearing, and Eubie Blake. Eponymously titled HARRY CONNICK, JR., his debut album for Columbia Records features well-known bassist Ron Carter, New Orleans drummer Herlin Riley, and contrabassist Reginald Veal.
Harry was born and raised in New Orleans, surrounded by the area's disparate musical styles: R&B, Dixieland, and various jazz forms including stride, bebop and honky tonk. Although bot parents were in the legal profession (his father is New Orleans District Attorney and his late mother was a judge), they at one time owned a record store and encouraged their son's early enthusiasm for music.
His listening favorites (then and now) include Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong, and Erroll Garner. New Orleans' famous Preservation Hall was a second home for Harry, where he heard local artists like Sweet Emma Barrett, Freddie Kohlman, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Riley. "I became musically active at a young age," Harry remembers. "I started sitting in with Dixieland musicians when I was six and played at my father's inaugural when I was five."
While still in high school, Harry enrolled as a music major in the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), where he met several people who would profoundly influence his career and his future. His classical piano studies with Betty Blancq enabled him to win several local piano competitions. But it was his jazz teacher Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Branford; now a music professor at Virginia Commonwealth) who coached Harry in bebop. The Marsalis influence, as well as that of the late New Orleans pianist James Booker, is apparent throughout the album.
Produced by Delfeayo Marsalis (yet another talented sibling), the LP was recorded direct-to-digital 2-track on the SONY PCM 1610, in one single afternoon at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York, January 12, 1987. "Delfeayo chose the recital hall for its acoustics," says Harry, "and I was very pleased with it."
The album's five solo piano selections clearly reflect the runs and stride styles learned from James Booker as well as the syncopations and dissonances of Monk. Of the standards ("Love Is Here to Stay," "Sunny Side of the Street," and "On Green Dolphin Street"), Harry says, "They're all old favorites of mine that came to mind immediately when I had to pick tunes for the album."
Regarding the Gershwins' "Love Is Here to Stay," Harry says, "I found out it was George Gershwin's last composition, and I've always liked the melody." He notes that "Sunny Side of the Street" was dedicated to James Booker because it is so reminiscent of his style, possessing a swing that is noticeably missing from most versions. "On Green Dolphin Street" pleasantly surprises the listener with an almost impressionistic approach to its inner voicings.
"Little Clown" and "Zealousy," both Connick originals, provide interesting contrasts to the standards. "Little Clown" was written when he was 15, during his stay at the Tanglewood Institute. "Wynton said he liked the tune, so I recorded it after having forgotten about it for some time." And "Zealousy" was inspired by "Magnolia Triangle," a tune written by James Black, a New Orleans drummer. "Although the A section is in 5/4," Harry comments, "it sounds as if it's in ¾, a time signature infrequently chosen by jazz musicians because of its difficulty."
Harry Connick, Jr.
Active Decades: '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Sep 11, 1967 in New Orleans, LA
Genre: Vocal
Styles: Jazz-Funk, Swing, Contemporary Pop/Rock, Traditional Pop
With very few exceptions, the career of Harry Connick, Jr., can be divided in half -- his first two albums encompassed straight-ahead New Orleans jazz and stride piano while his later career (which paralleled his rising celebrity status) alternated between more contemporary New Orleans music and pop vocals with a debt to Frank Sinatra. Born in New Orleans on September 11, 1967, Connick grew up the son of two lawyers who owned a record store. After beginning on keyboards at the age of three, he first performed publicly at six and recorded with a local jazz band at ten. Connick attended the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and studied with Ellis Marsalis and James Booker. A move to New York to study at Hunter College and the Manhattan School of Music gave him the opportunity to look up a Columbia Records executive who had asked to see him, and Connick's self-titled album debut -- a set of mostly unaccompanied standards -- appeared in 1987. Jazz critics praised Connick's maturity and engaging style as well as his extended stays at New York hot spots during the year. His second album, named for his age in 1988, was the first to feature him on vocals.
Already well known within jazz circles, Connick entered the American consciousness with the soundtrack to 1989's popular film When Harry Met Sally. Director Rob Reiner had asked Connick to compose a soundtrack, and he recorded several warm standards ("It Had to Be You," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore") with a big-band backing. A world tour followed, and When Harry Met Sally eventually reached double-platinum status. With Connick a major celebrity, he diverged into an acting career, playing a tail gunner in 1990's Memphis Belle. That same year, he released two albums simultaneously: one, We Are in Love, was another vocal outing with similar standards as had appeared on When Harry Met Sally, while Lofty's Roach Souffle was all-instrumental. (Of course, the vocal album performed much better in the pop charts, hitting double platinum, while the instrumentals worked better with jazz audiences.) Connick toured again, this time with a big band, and recorded the group on 1991's Blue Light, Red Light. Though his celebrity decreased slightly during the mid-'90s, Connick's albums continued to reach platinum status, including 1992's 25, a 1993 Christmas album, and 1994's She. Connick continued his acting work with a starring role in 1995's Copycat (where he played a serial killer) and married actress Jill Goodacre. In 1996, he had a brief role in the year's biggest blockbuster, Independence Day, but his album Star Turtle failed to connect with pop audiences. Come by Me, a return to big-band sounds, followed in 1999. In the new millennium, Connick cycled between albums exploring his jazz roots and those with songbook standards.
Interestingly, post-2001 Connick moved between two labels with albums getting released on both Columbia Records and saxophonist Branford Marsalis' Marsalis Music label. Among these were the big-band album Only You, featuring popular music from the '50s and '60s, and the more intimate releases Other Hours: Connick on Piano, Vol. 1 (2003) and Occasion: Connick on Piano, Vol. 2 (2005), which focused on Connick's instrumental abilities. As well as releasing albums, Connick continued to act, appearing regularly on the television sitcom Will & Grace before it ended in 2006. Ever devoted to his hometown, Connick was also heavily involved in the support and rebuilding of New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. In early September 2005, he organized the benefit telethon A Concert for Hurricane Relief on NBC to raise money for and draw attention to the beleaguered residents of New Orleans. Afterward, he worked closely with Habitat for Humanity in helping victims of Katrina. In 2007, Connick once again expressed his deep love for his hometown with the release of his New Orleans tribute album, Oh, My Nola, on Columbia Records.
---John Bush, All Music Guide |
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