my folks took me tonight to see harry connick, jr. they saw him pre-katrina, when he put on a rambunctious show, it sounded like, encoring with a foot-&-hand-stomping rollicking junker blues. they vowed they'd take me next time he rolled thru town, so they did! :) this show, they said, was more staid, w/lots of abstract jazz & loud brass, which to my ear, esp in the bouncing acoustics of the rabobank, was too discordant. (i'm a sucker for 1-4-5s w/heavy backbeat & bright chords.) also, connick's grand piano wasn't miked high enough, from where we sat. but when he brought out his two high school buddies to do more traditional blues-dixieland-rhumba influenced music, the show started to soar for me: loose & amiable 2nd-line style dancing & satchmo-like singing between wawas & toots from trombone & trumpet, harry switching between grand, spinet, & hammond (doing some cute visual jokes w/the trombone mute & teasing the audience quite a bit). yes, the guy is charmingly handsome, w/an absolutely winning personality onstage: i haven't heard so many females screaming ever in real life! the show ended w/a song by my favorite new orleans musician, professor longhair - "going to the mardi gras."
all in all, it was quite a nice show. harry the heartthrob can really run those keys (he studied under james booker! jiminy! -tho the jazz has taken him over, & i like my rocknroll, but oh well), is an endearing performer, & again will put on a more rollicking show, i think, the further katrina recedes in memory. there was a tinge of melancholy to tonight's performance (concert proceeds going to rebuilding new orleans), especially evident when he ended the show w/"do you know what it means to miss new orleans?" he must've sang that one a lot to not cry or get choked up, esp when his hometown, by his own report, is still ravaged - "it's even worse than you can picture"... THIS IS A COOL WEBSITE! The History of Boogie-Woogie -> http://nonjohn.com/History%20of%20Boogie%20Woogie.htm ... good night, everyone! :)
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