Introduction
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr is an American musician who has multiple talents in singing conducting, playing the piano, and acting and composes music. He was born in 1967 in New Orleans. Both parents were lawyers and had a record store where he began plating the keyboard at a tender age of three. However, he began performing to the public at the age of six. It was at the age of ten when he first recorded a song with a local jazz band. He has sold 25 million albums. He is rated as one of the top 60 bestselling male musicians in the country, (Shuster 4). He has a successful career and has 16 million sales that are certified by the recording industry. He has numerous achievements and is one of the male artists who have 20 top seven albums and ten jazz albums that were number one ranking hi as the only and best male artist in the jazz genre to have many albums in the chart history.
Early life and career
The music career of Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr began to take shape at an early age when he showed interest in learning to play the keyboard and late on began performing in public. He performed at a piano concert with the Symphony Orchestra of New Orleans. He was nine years old when he performed at this concert and later on in the same year performed a duet with Eubie Blake at a royal concert in his hometown. The song “I’m Just Wild about Harry" received a positive backup as it was later on used in recording a Japanese documentary famously known as the Jazz around the World. This was the beginning of his successful career in the jazz music genre the clip of their performance was aired in a Bravo clip titled the Worlds of Harry Connick, Junior. The clip was posted in 1999 to remember his early day in his artistic career. He had musical talents and he was able to build his musical career at the Center for Creative Arts located in New Orleans city. He was under the mentorship of two renowned tutors; Ellis Marsalis and James Booker who helped develop his talents and perfect his skills (Harris 13).
He dedicates his early life to study music in prestigious music schools in New Orleans and New York. It was during his years at the Manhattan School of Music where he first had the idea of signing with a label and beginning to produce his own music. The Columbia records persuaded him to sign in their label and he produced his first record called the Harry Connick Jr. The record was instrumental and gave him a name in the world of jazz. This is mainly because he maintained a high profile in the New York venues where he got a good reputation among the jazz lovers. He then produced his second album 20 where he focused more on his vocals (Shuster 8).
Career
His career life took shape in the early 1990s when he was requested to produce sound tracks for his comedies. The comedy called when Harry met Sally required a soundtrack and he produce many standard soundtracks for his comedy including the "It Had to Be You", track, the other one was "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and the last one was "Don't Get Around Much Anymore". The soundtracks in his comedy earned his is first ever Grammy award as the best male jazz performer in the male category. In 1990, he made another debut in the screen where he featured in the Memphis Belle about a crewmember who flew out of the Flying fortress during the world war. He released two albums in the same year and began a tour around the world. Both albums were instrumental with many original songs that earned him a second Grammy award. The in 1991 he was nominated for the Academy Award for his contribution to the God father three soundtracks with his "Promise Me You'll Remember". By the year 1991, he had released three multi –platinum albums where he had personally written the songs and arranged them. The Blue Light, Red Light was his third consecutive release in the multi-platinum. He starred as a friend of a young prodigy attending college in the Little Man Tate that was directed by Jodie foster in the late 1991.
In 1992, he released another piano collection where he performed solo with a standard of collections that helped in go into platinum once again. During the same year, he did a re-release of the eleven albums, which was a major success (Harris 12).The soundtrack Sleepless in Seattle had his Wink and a smile as a contribution he made to the album in 1993. In December 1993, his track When My Heart Finds Christmas was the bestselling among his platinum of holiday songs. The song was the bestselling during the Christmas season making him one of the best artists to make so many sales from a Christmas track.
Connick is well known for producing songs that go platinum and he branched out in 1994 and immediately released an album focusing on the bad humor of the New Orleans titled ‘She’. The album was a success and was well received by his fans. He later on released a single hit ‘I could only whisper your name’ where as a soundtrack for the movie the Mask. This song is his most successful single hits in the United States of America. He shifted from releasing Jazz music to funk again in 1995 when he released another funk album titled the Star Turtle. His fans were not happy with this move because they preferred his Jazz hits as compared to the Funk, which he took to his tour in 1995.
However, his funk production did not last for long as he went back to jazz music in 1997 with the release of the To See You album that had a number of original love songs. In his tour of the United States and Europe in the same year, he took with him a team of orchestra to back him and played piano to entertain his fans. In 1999, he released another album, which was the first album he ever produced with a big band. In the early 2000s, he produced number of hit albums based on novels. He also released two other albums featuring big bands.
Instrumentals
In 2003, he did his first instrumental and released the Other Hours Connick on Piano Volume 1 under the label Marsalis Music. This was his first ever Instrumental and hit was a hit among his fans. In the same year, he released another Christmas hit album titles Harry for the Holidays that received a good publicity and became number 12 in the hit chart (Connick 67). The happy elf from this album was later on animated and became a theme song for the holiday special. Another instrument was released in 2005 called the Occasion: Connick on Piano, Volume 2, where he did a duo with Branford Marsalis the owner of the label he was recording with where Bradford was in the saxophone and Harry in the piano. He has been in several piano performances. He released a third album on the instrumentals in 2007 called the Chanson du Vieux Carré that gave him two nominations for the Grammy awards.
Contributions
He has done a lot to support the development of the Jazz music in New Orleans where he founded the Krewe of Orpheus. The group performs in different occasions and helps develop talents in the area. His other contributions are in the relief and charity activities where he features in events to help those affected by natural disasters like the hurricane and the Katrina. He performed at a live concert featuring the Katrina where he performed with other musicians and entertainers to bring the pains of those affected by the Katrina to the public’s attention. The musicians’ village is another initiative where he and other musicians from New Orleans try to improve the music and talents of upcoming jazz artists. The musician village is also a place where those who want to buy homes at affordable prices get a chance to purchase them and live among the musicals (Connick 23).
The musical career of Harry began at a tender age and he has been successful in releasing hit albums since the 1980s. His career shifts from producing jazz albums to instrumentals and funk .he also stares in different films and narrates documentaries. This is why his name is among the top in the list of jazz musicians. His albums are a success in the hit charts and he never disappoints his fans no matter the genre he chooses to release an album with. He gives back to his fans and help shape the music careers of upcoming artists. He has several projects that try to help those affected by the hurricanes and try to restore their lives. He does this with the help of other musicians who want to give back to their fans in different ways.
Works Cited
Connick, Harry. Harry Connick, Jr. New York: New Riders, 2002. Print.
Harris, Dana. "Fox patents Harry's new 'Invention'. (20th Century Fox hires Harry Connick Jr. to develop movie musical 'Ben Invention') (Brief Article)." Daily Variety 19 Dec. 2003: 12-13. Print.
Shuster, William George. "Harry Connick Jr. is Longines's Icon of Elegance (Brief Article)."
Jewelers Circular Keystone 1 Oct. 2005: 12. Print.
