[Dixielandjazz] Harry Connick Jr. reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Setting New Standards
N.O. roots still solid, Harry Connick Jr. puts on a spirited show
by Keith Spera
New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 6, 2011
Harry Connick Jr. should come home more often.
Before his Monday night appearance at a full Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing
Arts, the singer-pianist-actor had not graced a local stage since a sweaty set to
conclude the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell.
On Monday, Connick atoned for that long absence by doling out the love -- some of
it tough love -- and communing with a local who's who. He did this within the context
of an entertaining, spirited show that spoke both to his roots and to his decades
of polish on the world stage.
In temperament and tone, Connick's presentation recalled Lyle Lovett's in the same
building last fall. Both Connick and Lovett dispensed much bone-dry humor. Both were
cool, collected and clearly in command. Both traffic in music that draws on age-old
styles. And both fronted large ensembles equally precise in attire and musicianship.
Connick directed a drummer, bassist, six-piece horn section and six-piece string
section. The horn section, he noted in one of many unfiltered musings, has grown
leaner with tough economic times. "When I was really popular, we had five saxophones,"
he said. "We're hanging on by a thread. (Soon) I'm going to be solo piano."
The musicians fleshed out Connick's arrangements and served as the butt of his humorous
barbs.
Otherwise, Connick was full of praise. He gushed about Mayor Mitch Landrieu and jazz
drummer Bob French, and nominated Habitat for Humanity director Jim Pate for canonization;
all three were in attendance. He copped to stealing most of his trumpet licks --
yes, the multi-talented Connick plays a little trumpet, too -- from Leroy Jones,
a longtime band member who returned for a cameo Monday.
Junior also delivered a lengthy, loving tribute to his 85-year-old father, Harry
Connick Sr., who received the evening's first standing ovation when he sang "You're
Nobody Til Somebody Loves You."
The younger Connick celebrated his hometown, but also stressed the need for it not
to be bound by the past. The irony, of course, is that he favored songs that predate
the Eisenhower administration.
However, his obvious love for such standards as "All the Way" and the seamless infusion
of his hometown ethos -- as when drummer Arthur Latin deployed a tambourine in "Didn't
He Ramble" -- rendered the music vital and alive.
He refrained from showy piano recitals, but invested several songs with intricate
solos, alternately channeling Art Neville and Professor Longhair. In "St. James Infirmary,"
he veered from lonely plunks on upper register keys to meaty fistfuls of notes.
Trombonist Lucien Barbarin plays Sammy Davis Jr. to Connick's Sinatra. The Yat Pack
duo squared off for a campy duet on "How Come You Do Me Like You Do," with a fey
Connick serenading Barbarin in a coy, pouty voice. Later, after adjusting one another's
lapels, they turned their backs and shook their tailfeathers across the stage, much
to the delight of the audience.
Guest Branford Marsalis refrained from rump-shaking, but told a lovely story about
a saxophone that was lost, found and lost again in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
Monday's concert was a benefit for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, the centerpiece
of the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village in the 9th Ward. The center's namesake
teamed up with his son for a beautifully understated "Do You Know What It Means to
Miss New Orleans."
Together with Connick, Barbarin and trumpeter Mark Braud, they tore up "Down on Bourbon
Street." Long before the final "Go to the Mardi Gras," Connick had established his
Big Easy bonafides.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
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