Harry Connick, Jr
Over the past two decades, Harry Connick, Jr. has taken a very hands-on approach to his recording career. The multi-talented Connick has called the shots at the numerous phases of his album projects – writing original material or picking songs, choosing the ensemble settings and writing arrangements, singing and playing piano, and with the aid of co-producer and longtime confidant, Tracey Freeman, overseeing mixing and mastering. Whether performing the American Songbook or in the jazz, blues or funk idiom, the process has yielded consistent success, not to mention worldwide sales of over 25 million discs.
For Your Songs, his newest collection on Columbia Records, Connick expands his vision to encompass 14 classic popular songs; his instrumental pallet through a striking integration of a string orchestra and his swinging Big Band; and his basic approach to recording.
Clive Davis, the legendary producer and Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment, is the driving force behind the change. “The term `producer’ is normally kind of nebulous in my environment,” Connick says. “He might set up the sessions and ensure that we get the best possible sound. Tracey has done that, and acted as a sounding board; but I always made all the musical decisions. As my co-producer on this album, Clive was very involved in the overall concept, song selection and choice of tempos. And, although he didn’t come to the studio when we recorded, he gave me lots of comments on the mixes.”
Thursday, February 11 - 7:30PM
