332: Harry Connick Jr.
from The Third Story with Leo Sidran
Harry Connick, Jr. has spent four decades as one of the most recognizable and versatile figures in American music — a pianist, singer, composer, arranger, actor and entertainer whose career has moved freely between jazz, pop, Broadway, film and television. His new project, Babe: Elaboratio — A Tribute to My Mother, may also be his most personal and ambitious: an orchestral work and accompanying book devoted to his mother, Anita Livingston, who died when Harry was 13. Here Harry talks about constructing Babe from the fragments and misrememberings of childhood memory; growing up as a musical prodigy in New Orleans under the guidance of Ellis Marsalis and James Booker; recording with Ron Carter, Dr. John and Carmen McRae while still barely out of his teens; and experiencing his early success in what he now describes as a kind of "dream state." He also talks about composition and improvisation, his father Harry Connick Sr., the unusual confidence his mother gave him, and the challenge of spending a lifetime balancing serious musicianship with a desire to entertain. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story
Embed this episode
No transcript yet.