Harry Connick, Jr.
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Harry Connick, Jr., was born Joseph Harry Fowler Connick in New
Orleans, Louisiana, on September 11, 1967. His father, Harry Connick, Sr., was
of Irish Catholic descent and the district attorney of New Orleans for 27 years;
his New York-born Jewish mother was a Louisiana Supreme Court Justice. His
parents also owned a record store. Connick's musical talents soon came to the
fore when he learned the keyboards at the age of three, played publicly at six
and recorded with a local jazz band at 10. His musical talents were developed at
the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and under the tutelage of Ellis
Marsalis and James Booker.
Connick attended Jesuit High School in New Orleans. He moved to New York City to
study at Hunter College and the Manhattan School of Music, where a Columbia
Records executive persuaded him to sign with that label. His first record for
the label, Harry Connick Jr., was a mainly instrumental album of standards. He
soon acquired a reputation in jazz due to extended stays at high-profile New
York venues. His next album, 20, featured his vocals and added to this
reputation.
Harry Connick, Jr.’s music encompasses jazz, some of it very much in the style
of the crooners of the 1940s and early '50s, funk and blues. He married model
Jill Goodacre in 1994. They have three daughters: Georgia Tatom (April 17,
1996), Sarah Kate (September 12, 1997), and Charlotte (June 26, 2002). He is a
prime organizer and captain of the Krewe of Orpheus, a music-based krewe, taking
its name from Orpheus of Classical mythology. The Krewe of Orpheus parades on
St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street in New Orleans on Lundi Gras (Fat Monday) —
the day before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).
In 1994, Harry Connick, Jr., decided to branch out, releasing She, an album of
New Orleans funk that also went platinum. In addition, he released a song called
"(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name" for the soundtrack of The Mask, starring Jim
Carrey, which is his most successful single in the United States to date. He
took his funk music on a tour of the United Kingdom in 1994, an effort that did
not please all of his fans, who were expecting a jazz crooner. One fan who
walked out said, "We expected Frank Sinatra but we got Motörhead instead." The
music was actually more reminiscent of the Meters rather than Motörhead. Connick
also took his funk music to the People's Republic of China in 1995, playing at
the Shanghai Center Theatre. The performance was televised live in China for
what became known as the Shanghai Gumbo special.
Connick played a homicidal killer in his third film, Copycat (1995), which
starred Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver. The next year, he released his second
funk album, Star Turtle, which did not sell as well as previous albums, although
it did reach No. 38 on the charts. However, he appeared in the most successful
movie of that year, Independence Day, with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum.
For his 1997 release To See You, Connick recorded original love songs, touring
the United States and Europe with a full symphony orchestra backing him and his
piano in each city. As part of his tour, he played at the Nobel Peace Prize
Concert in Oslo, Norway, with his final concert of that tour in Paris being
recorded for a St. Valentine's Day special on PBS in 1998. He also starred in
Excess Baggage opposite Alicia Silverstone and Benicio del Toro in 1997.
In May 1998, he had his first leading role in a movie in Hope Floats, with
Sandra Bullock as his female lead. He released Come By Me, his first album of
big band music in eight years in 1999, and embarked on a world tour visiting the
United States, Europe, Japan and Australia. In addition, he provided the voice
of Dean McCoppin in the animated film The Iron Giant in that year.
Connick was involved in writing the soundtrack for Susan Stroman's Broadway
musical Thou Shalt Not, based on Émile Zola's novel Thérčse Raquin, in 2000; it
premiered in 2001. It was nominated for a Tony Award. He was also the narrator
of the film My Dog Skip, released in that year.
In March 2001, Harry Connick, Jr. starred in a television production of South
Pacific with Glenn Close, televised on the ABC network. He also starred in his
twelfth movie, Mickey, featuring a screenplay by John Grisham that same year. In
October 2001, he again released two albums: Songs I Heard, featuring big band
reworkings of children's show themes, and 30, featuring Connick on piano with
guest appearances by several other musical artists. Songs I Heard won Connick
another Grammy for best traditional pop album and he toured performing songs
from the album, holding matinees at which each parent had to be accompanied by a
child.
Harry Connick, Jr. appeared as Grace Adler's boyfriend (and later husband) Leo
Markus on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace from 2002 to 2006. In July 2003, Connick
released his first instrumental album in fifteen years, Other Hours Connick on
Piano Volume 1. It was released on Branford Marsalis's new label Marsalis Music
and led to a short tour of nightclubs and small theaters.
Harry Connick, Jr. appeared in the film Basic with John Travolta and Samuel L.
Jackson. In October 2003, he released his second Christmas album, Harry for the
Holidays, which went gold and reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
He also had a television special on NBC featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane,
Marc Anthony
and Kim Burrell. Only You, his seventeenth album for Columbia
Records, was released in February 2004. A collection of 1950s and 1960s ballads,
Only You, went Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic and was certified gold in
the United States in March 2004. The Only You tour with big band went on in
America, Australia and a short trip to Asia. Harry for the Holidays was
certified platinum in November 2004. A music DVD Harry Connick Jr. - "Only You"
in Concert was released in March 2004, after it had first aired as a Great
Performances special on PBS. The special won him an Emmy for Outstanding Music
Direction. The DVD received a Gold & Platinum Music Video - Long Form awards
from the RIAA in November 2005.
An animated holiday special, The Happy Elf, aired on NBC in December 2005, and
had Harry Connick, Jr. as the composer, the narrator, and one of the executive
producers. Shortly after, it was released on DVD. The holiday special was based
on his original song The Happy Elf, from his 2003 album Harry for the Holidays.
Another album from Marsalis Music was recorded in 2005, Occasion : Connick on
Piano, Volume 2, a duo album with Harry Connick, Jr on piano together with
Branford Marsalis on saxophone. A music DVD, A Duo Occasion, was filmed at the
Ottawa International Jazz Festival 2005 in Canada, and released in November
2005. He appeared in another episode of NBC sitcom Will & Grace in November
2005, and will appear in additional 3 episodes in 2006. Bug, a film directed by
William Friedkin, is a psychological thriller filmed in 2005, starring Connick,
Ashley Judd, and Michael Shannon. The film will be released in 2006.
Harry Connick, Jr. just finished starring in the Broadway revival of The Pajama
Game, produced by the Roundabout Theater Company, along with Michael McKean and
Kelli O'Hara, at the American Airlines Theatre. It opened February 23, 2006, and
it ran until June 17, 2006.
Harry Connick, Jr. is ready to play music again.
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