Harry Connick Jr.

Harry Connick Jr. (b. September 11th, 1968)

WHEN HARRY MET BIG BAND

Leading His Own Jazz Orchestra Gives Harry Connick Jr. Something to Sing About
Harry Connick Jr. is a rarity -- a serious jazz musician who is a bona fide celebrity. Best known as a Sinatra-esque pop singer and a budding Hollywood leading man (not to mention the husband of supermodel Jill Goodacre), Connick also employs a steady-working 17 piece jazz band comprised of top-notch improvisers for which he writes increasingly personal arrangements. And he continues to evolve his distinctive two-handed piano style, blending New Orleans vernacular with Modernist vocabulary. COME BY ME, a 1999 chart-topper that's inflected as much by the spirits of Louis Armstrong and Dr. John as Frank Sinatra, gives you a sense of how Connick is developing. Inspired by his band, which the new year with a tour of the eastern U.S. and Canada, he continues to progress and generate new material. Ted Panken of barnesandnoble.com spoke to the multitalented Connick during a short break in his touring schedule.

barnesandnoble.com: Who were some of your early big band influences?

Harry Connick Jr.: I'm very happy with what I'm doing with the big band, and I truly love it. But when I got thrown into this situation, I'd never played with or seriously listened to a big band. That wasn't my thing. So when I did the album for WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, I found myself out there in front of this big band, which I had no idea how to do, and they wiped the floor with me. It's a very specific skill, and I didn't know how to do it. But the album became very popular; I found myself going on a big worldwide tour, and the people wanted the big band. So here I am with a big band, and the only charts I have are like two or three from WHEN HARRY MET SALLY; the rest of the tunes had strings, or were solos or trios. So I started writing charts. Man, they were pathetic. But I can hustle even better than anything I can do musically. So I went out on stage and hustled the audience and made them think that we had a whole jam-packed show of big band music, when in reality the band was sitting up there for probably an hour-and-a-half doing nothing. I was determined to get my writing better, so I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I was listening to Duke Ellington, and I listened to a lot of Nelson Riddle -- that's about it. I heard other people. Obviously, I heard Claus Ogerman and Axel Stordahl and Billy May...

barnesandnoble.com: All the Sinatra arrangers.

HC: Of course, all of that stuff. But then at least five years ago I just threw it all away. I said, "I need to move on." And even though a lot of the stuff I was doing -- and probably the stuff I'm still doing today -- sounded or sounds derivative, it's because I am just breaking through, dealing with my own style.

barnesandnoble.com: I don't know if it sounds derivative. It doesn't sound like you're extrapolating a false attitude on top of it.

HC: It's definitely not false. But a lot of people don't understand. Either they'll say, "Well, what else do you have to learn?" and you have to explain the whole process to them, or they think it's derivative because they don't understand the difference between style and being a serious student of the music. They think I'm into this because I like zoot suits.

barnesandnoble.com: It's such a great situation, being in a position to sustain a big band and be able to hear your stuff played back.

HC: Well, that's why the success part of it is very important to me. The interviews, all this stuff that accompanies it has nothing to do with why the music is important. Because the end result, believe it or not, is that I get to do whatever I want musically, and I get to do it for a long time -- which is what I'm into. Man, I write a chart every day for this big band. It's the greatest thing in the world. Literally, we're playing a different chart every single night! You talk about fast growth. COME BY ME never was a big milestone in my recording career; it's just another record I did. Compared to what I'm doing now it's ancient history.

barnesandnoble.com: The ambiance of "Cry Me a River" from COME BY ME really makes me think of Louis Armstrong. When did you first become aware of Pops in a serious way?

HC: When you're from New Orleans, you sort of know about Pops, and I was really into him since I was a kid. I made my first album when I was nine years old. My contribution to that was terrible; I mean, I had nothing going on. But one of the things I did was imitate Louis Armstrong. I started listening to him seriously when I was about 18 or 19. I'm very melody-centered. Pops is the single greatest melody-maker who ever lived. There's no one who could invent melodies like that, and have the discipline and the confidence to do it in any kind of music, in any tempo, in any key. He just wouldn't budge. Being able to stick to your game plan like that is probably the most impressive thing.

barnesandnoble.com: Do you get to practice the piano a lot?

HC: I'm at a weird point, man. I've spent a lot of time practicing. I'm a natural piano player. So all the practicing I do at this point is in my head. If I don't play for a year, my chops aren't going to get any worse. I've spent my time playing scales, and I don't necessarily want to play any faster than I play. So everything I do at this point is more philosophical. Plus, what do you practice? Do you practice new chords or something that you're going to play on the gig? I just don't like preparing art like that. I think it's better to go out and play what you're feeling at that time. It's different than a trumpet player, who has to maintain his chops; I don't have to do that.

barnesandnoble.com: Who are some of your favorite contemporary piano players?

HC: I like Hank Jones. He's awesome. I like McCoy Tyner. But you have to understand, with all due respect to these guys, I don't listen to music any more. I don't go to clubs. I haven't put a CD in the CD machine in years. That's why I say the derivative stage (and I say that in a good way) is going away. Over the next few years, for anyone interested, they'll hear development. So even though I love Hank Jones, I don't listen to him or any of these people. I've only got, hopefully, about 50 more years left in my life, and I've got to pack it in with as much work as I can do.

barnesandnoble.com: How has your songwriting developed over the last five--six years?

HC: I haven't figured it out yet. I don't think I'm any better of a songwriter now than I was ten years ago. Anything I'm writing now, I could have written then. I go through phases. You probably go through this as a writer, where you write something and you start to see your own cliches, not necessarily ones everybody writes, and you have a desire to move away. I did a whole ballads album where everything is super poetic. I would sing these songs on stage, and nobody knew what the hell I was singing about. I always laugh at these rock n'rollers where you can't understand them. Mind you, it's not because they're inaudible or indistinguishable; it's because they're too obscure. So I'm always trying to figure it out. But once in a while, I hit on a pretty good one, I think.

barnesandnoble.com: Tell me about the forthcoming album 30.

HC: I sing on it. It's mostly solo piano. I did two records, one called 20 and one called 25. It's as close to narcissistic as you can get; basically it's to document myself in the same exact situation every five years, just for fun. So I did one called 30. For each one, I have special guests, a piano player, a bass player, and a singer, and that's what I did again.