‘The music makes me feel li
LONG before Josh Groban and Michael Bublé, Harry Connick Jr was the heir to the ghosts of showbusiness past. For a generation he was the dreamboat whose voice soundtracked 1989’swhen Harry Met Sally and a series of bestselling jazz albums. He was the new Sinatra, without the messy Mob connections; a global star at 22.
An effortless transition to the big screen had them swooning in the aisles from Memphis Belle and Independence Day to Hope Floats. He was a wholesome hottie with plenty of soul to keep things interesting.
Thirty years later, Harry has three Grammys, two Emmys and 28 million album sales. He married formervictoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre in 1994 and they have three daughters, Georgia, Sarah and Charlotte. Throw in sister Suzanna and his Louisiana Supreme Court justice mother Anita and Harry has always been surrounded by women.
“I mostly gravitate to women because I find them more interesting,” he happily admits.
The feeling is reciprocated from 20something colleagues to my somewhat older mother – who all universally sigh when I mention the interview.
Sure, he comes packaged in six strapping feet of floppy-haired, sleepy-eyed Louisiana charm, but why does everyone wish they were Sally to this Harry?
It starts with his upbringing and ends with his faith... but ultimately everything comes down to love.
“We were raised in New Orleans blind to everything – colour, sexuality, creed,” he tells me.
“Mardi Gras is a Catholic day but in New Orleans it’s become an extraordinary celebration of life, love and difference.
“These things co-exist in all of us. We are complex creations, but people have so many issues about what is different from them. I try to love deeply and believe in everyone. That is what makes me happy. I truly love my wife and children. I have relationships with men and women in my life whom I truly love.
“I try to think about what Christ wanted. Man, he loved everyone. He didn’t judge. I think about what some Catholics say about gay people and I don’t believe that is what the man we worship wanted. I don’t believe in ‘tolerance’. It implies there is something to overcome. Love a person for who they are.”
Music was his first great passion. He made his debut onstage at the age of five, playing piano at a political rally for his father, Joseph Harry Fowler Connick who became the district attorney of New Orleans Parish.
“I loved the piano from three or four. A event, I played the Star-spangled Banner didn’t want to stop. My dad had to pull m away. I’ve always been obsessed with the you can press this little key down and a s comes out and, man, sometimes it makes feel something wonderful.”
HARRY played with the New Orl Symphony at nine and recorded first album at 10.The rest may b history but I don’t doubt it whe says, “I’d be happy if all I did was play fo myself, the fact that it touches other lives honour.”
A gifted performer, Harry also arrange composes. He orchestrated every note an every instrument on new albumtrue Lov Celebration Of Cole Porter. It’s a stagger achievement.
“There are 550 pages of scores. Not ju actual notes but the phrasing. It’s fine to freestyle on a New Orleans funk album, for an orchestra? Man, there is so much t can go wrong! But it is so exciting to be creating at 52 and evolving. It’s art, there final chapter. It’s thrilling to be uncomfor and challenged.”
I tell him my favourite track on the alb Begin The Beguine, hastily clarifying it’s because it’s the only one where he doesn
His sleepy baritone remains as beguilin ever, but when he simply plays the piano