Harry Connick Jr - Pianist And Funk Music Specialist Article

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Harry Connick Jr - Pianist and Funk Music Specialist

Harry Connick Jr., pianist, composer, and actor, has had a successful career spanning a huge list of soundtracks for a number of successful movies and produced a range of albums, which have garnered him world-wide popularity.

Author: Anna Woodward

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Harry Connick, Jr. is an American actor, pianist, and composer. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 11, 1967. His father was the district attorney of Orleans Parish and his mother was a lawyer, judge, and later the Louisiana Supreme court justice. His family also owned and operated a record store.

When Harry was nine, he performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 Opus 37 with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra, and also played a duet called 'I'm Just Wild About Harry'. Both of these songs were recorded for a documentary known as "Jazz Around The World". After high school, he wanted to study jazz professionally and had given recitals at Loyola academy. Finally he moved to New York and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was signed up by Columbia records to produce his first album.

Soon he branched out into working on original soundtracks for movies, starting with Rob Reiner's 'When Harry Met Sally'. His album of New Orleans funk, known as 'She', turned platinum, and was a roaring success. He also released a song for the soundtrack of the movie 'The Mask', starring Jim Carrey - his most successful single, titled "(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name".

On April 16, 1994, he married former Victoria's Secret model Jill Goodacre. He had dedicated a song to her from an earlier album 'Blue Light, Red Light'. In the same year, he took his funk music on a UK tour and then to China in the following year. This performance came to be known as the Shanghai Gumbo special. In 1997, for his next release, he recorded original love songs and toured Europe and the US with a full symphony orchestra. 'Come By Me' (1999) was his first album recorded in a 'big-band' feel.

He has also scored for a Broadway musical, and in addition to acting in 'Independence Day', and other movies in small-bit roles, also had a walk-on role in a television sitcom. His first instrumental album, after 15 years, titled 'Connick On Piano' led to a series of 3 volumes, not to mention, a grand world tour. The second album in the series, titled 'Occasion: Connick On Piano, Volume 2' had him teaming up with Branford Marsalis on the saxophone. He would go on to collaborate later in 2009, with the multiple Grammy award-winning Clive Davis.

His acting stint continued with movies such as the hit romantic comedy 'P.S. I Love You'. The 'Connick On Piano' series had a third edition out, and it's track 'Ash Wednesday' won him two Grammy nominations in 2008. Harry Connick Jr. lives in New York, with his wife and two kids, and continues to work on multiple soundtracks and as an actor on various Hollywood and independent productions.

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Harry Connick Jr - Pianist and Funk Music Specialist