Classic crooner
Harry Connick Jr., like Bing and Frank before him, has tackled many different media:
• Movies: He acted in “Memphis Belle,” “Independence Day” and numerous other films.
• TV: He has a recurring role in NBC’s “Will & Grace,” and he played Lt. Joe Cable in the 2001 ABC movie remake of “South Pacific.”
• Broadway: He wrote the score for the Broadway musical “Thou Shalt Not” in 2001.
• Recording: His 1999 “Come By Me” CD was certified gold, and his most recent album, this year’s “Only You,” is selling briskly.
To sum up, the man has received nominations in each of the Big Four: the Oscars, Grammys, Emmys and Tonys.
So, yes, Connick, who arrives Saturday night at the Spokane Opera House, is clearly a talent who crosses a lot of genres. And even in his main line of work, musician, he falls into several different camps: jazz pianist, composer, big band conductor and high-energy performer.
Yet it is as a pop-standards crooner, the genre that first made him a household name, that he has made the biggest splash. His first break into the big time came in 1989, when he sang retro tunes such as “It Had to Be You” and “But Not for Me” on the soundtrack to “When Harry Met Sally.”
Now, he’s back in that same territory with “Only You,” released in February.
This is an album of standards that date mostly from the first half of the century, but were revived and became part of the ‘50s soundtrack: “The Very Thought of You,” “My Prayer,” “My Blue Heaven,” “I Only Have Eyes For You” and the title song.
“Part of what I wanted to do on this record was focus on songs that had their second success in the ‘50s,” Connick said in a press release. ” ‘My Prayer’ is a great example. I know that most people associate it with the Platters, but I knew the Ink Spots version from the ‘30s as well.”
His style on this album is familiar to those who know him only from “When Harry Met Sally.” It’s a style that has led some critics to refer to Connick as “Frank Synopsis.”
Granted, his vocals certainly do recall Sinatra. But is that such a bad thing? If a man has the talent to do what Sinatra could do, maybe he should use it.
Besides, Connick says he is investing more of his own personality in these songs than ever.
“There was a time when I wouldn’t let life experience into the music, because I thought that art was completely internal,” Connick was quoted in a press release. “To a great extent, I still think that’s true, because otherwise artists would just be chasing sunsets.
“But now, I find myself drawing on personal experience more than ever before. When I sang ‘Other Hours,’ I was thinking of the more difficult times in my life, and when I sang ‘Only You,’ and most of the other songs, I was thinking about my wife, Jill.”
That would be former Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre.
Even if you accept that pop standards don’t stretch Connick creatively, he can’t be accused of complacency in his other work. He has delved into funk with “She” (1994) and “Star Turtle” (1996) and original jazz composition in “Lefty’s Roach Souffle” (1990) and several other albums.
In 2001, he took a big artistic risk by writing a high-profile Broadway musical, an arena that has defeated such other songwriting talents as Paul Simon. The result, “Thou Shalt Not,” was not a commercial success (partly because it opened just weeks after Sept. 11, 2001) and was not totally beloved by critics.
Yet Connick ended up scoring a Tony Awards nomination for the score. He was quoted by Playbill magazine as saying that he would write another Broadway show “in a minute.”
Connick is New Orleans-born and raised, but his performing sensibilities are a good fit for Broadway. As anyone who has seen him live can testify, he’s an exuberant showman on stage. Even when many of his songs are Nat King Cole-mellow, his stage show manages to be high energy.