Harry Connick Jr.

We had the entire Rebana Suite at the MPO for the length of the concert on the fourth of March. Looking down at the concert from the second floor balcony accorded us a special status though we felt a bit cut off from the main proceedings that were taking place on the ground. (I suppose, sometimes one gets the urge to stay close to the action rather than merely spectate). I had a rollicking good time having been thoroughly hit squarely between the eyes (and groin) with a heavy dose of New Orleans music. And big swinging jazz at that! Harry was a real charmer. The actor in him couldn't be possibly suppressed and it just oozed on stage. It was put to good use I thought and perhaps a touch too much. But what an accomplished musician he is. His touch on the ivory keys was nothing short of a seasoned professional. The bonus for me was his Big Band. They literally blew me away with just; 3 trombones, 3 trumpets and 3 saxaphones, 1 drummer and 1 double bassist. They were coordinated like a hand in a well worn glove. Music never sounded so good and so big to me. My other guests Ann and Wendy were equally thrilled. Ann was rocking in her seat, finger snapping and foot tapping while Wendy sat riveted obviously mesmerised with the Connick charm. She described him as 'yummy'. The usually cool and restraint Zane, who was the reason for all this to happen, was moved to clapping so hard for the encore for him to reemerge. Ah...the encore alone was worth the price of the entire Rebana Suite! He went into his famed delivery of the Academy Award winning song; 'It had to be you' from the movie 'When Harry met Sally'. His short but utterly smooth delivery of the song brought a fitting end to a brilliant concert for me. The post concert autograph session was a highly restricted affair with the security dogs snapping at any attempts at photography. So we headed to our favourite bar,Chinoz for post concert drinks. And guess who we bumped in to? Yup. Sean Ghazi. Zane's favourite local star. This young singing sensation, whose current Malay jazz album is mine and Zane's favourite, is also an accomplished stage actor having starred in the recent P.Ramlee musical at Istana Budaya. Zane finally meet up with Sean who, apparently has heard of the near missed attempts to meet him earlier and he insists on taking photos and for us to put on my blog, which he has read. Well, here to you Sean and Harry! What a night...