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 With a career studded with awards and recognition, including several multi-platinum and gold albums, Grammy, Tony and Emmy Awards, and much more, world-renowned jazz pianist and vocalist Harry Connick, Jr. will stage his first-ever concert in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on March 19, 2008.
Over the past two decades, Harry Connick, Jr. has proven to be among the world’s most successful and multi-talented artists. Connick first reached a mass audience as a pianist, singer and bandleader, securing his place in the public eye as a renaissance man and versatile entertainer.
His love of music and performing dates back to his childhood in New Orleans, where he studied piano with such luminaries as James Booker and Ellis Marsalis. He first performed publicly at age five, appeared on his first jazz recording at age ten, and released his self-titled major label debut for Columbia Records at 19, only a year after his high school graduation and his move to New York City. Connick achieved widespread success as a musician when director Rob Reiner asked him to contribute the score to his 1989 smash When Harry Met Sally, leading to Connick's first big-band recording and first multi-platinum album. In the ‘90s, the full scope of Connick’s artistry emerged. His albums featured original instrumental and vocal music (Lofty’s Roach Soufflé and We are in Love, respectively), explored funk (She and Star Turtle) and romantic balladry (To See You), and then pulled all of these strands together in the decade-ending big band tour de force Come by Me. Recent years have seen further triumphs, including his Grammy-winning reflection on favorite music of his youth, Songs I Heard, and his blockbuster hit albums Harry for the Holidays, a Christmas classic, and subsequent collection of ballads, Only You. At the same time, Connick displayed his instrumental prowess in more intimate settings, a goal realized with his Connick on Piano series recordings for Marsalis Music which include the releases Other Hours, by Connick’s quartet, and Occasion, Connick’s duo encounter with Branford Marsalis. Connick began 2007 with the January 30th Columbia Records release of Oh, My NOLA, a new album of New Orleans-inspired music. On the same day, Marsalis Music released a companion album of instrumentals by Connick’s big band, Chanson du Vieux Carré. At the same time, Connick has built a successful film career, appearing both on screen and soundtracks. After making his acting debut in Memphis Belle in 1990, he has also appeared in Little Man Tate, Copycat, Independence Day, Hope Floats, John Grisham’s Mickey, William Friedkin’s Bug and P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank to be released in 2007. His music has also contributed to the success of such films as Godfather III, Sleepless in Seattle and The Mask. As a television performer, Connick has starred in two holiday specials built around his multi-platinum holiday albums, When My Heart Finds Christmas (CBS) and Harry for the Holidays (NBC), and two Great Performances/PBS concert specials, Swingin’ Out Live and the 2004 Emmy-winning Harry Connick, Jr.: Only You In Concert. He teamed with IDT Entertainment (producers of the The Simpsons) on The Happy Elf, a one-hour 3D animated holiday TV special based on his original children’s song from Harry for the Holidays, which aired on NBC and was released on DVD during the 2005 holiday season. In addition, Connick starred opposite Glenn Close in the ABC TV adaptation of the musical South Pacific and played the recurring role of Dr. Leo Markus on the NBC series Will & Grace. Connick made his Broadway theatrical stage debut in the 2006 revival of The Pajama Game to sold-out audiences, rave reviews, and nominations for Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. The Pajama Game received the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. His concert production Harry Connick, Jr. and His Orchestra - Live on Broadway, directed by Joe Layton, was produced in 1990 at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre.; and in 2002, Connick received a Tony nomination for Best Original Score for Thou Shalt Not, directed by Susan Stroman at the Plymouth Theatre. As a New Orleans native, Harry Connick, Jr., was deeply affected by the devastation caused by Katrina along the Gulf Coast. Connick teamed up with Branford Marsalis, and the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to create “Musicians’ Village,” a community in the Upper Ninth Ward which will consist of single-family homes for musicians and other qualifying homeowner families as well as elder-friendly duplexes. Its centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, a performance, instruction and recording complex, dedicated to the education and development of homeowners and others who will live nearby. All of these achievements – not to mention his album sales of over 25 million, his three Grammy awards, Emmy award, and Tony nominations – reflect a creative energy that make Harry Connick Jr. unique in the world of contemporary entertainment.
Harry Connick, Jr. and his Big Band Live in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hall 3
8pm – March 19, 2008
Tickets: HK$690, $490, $290
Public sales: 10 am on January 9, 2008 at all HK Ticketing and Tom Lee Music outlets
Booking hotline: (852) 31-288-288
Online booking: www.livenationasia.com / www.hkticketing.com (information provided by the organiser)
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