Connick’s Genre

In a Feb. 22 comment on the Grammy winners, Robert Hilburn writes: “Harry Connick Jr.’s victory in the male jazz vocal category is likely to stir criticism from the purist wing of the jazz community that has tended to think of Connick . . . as a cabaret or pop singer.” Connick a “cabaret or pop singer”!

The jazz pianist made his first public appearance at age 5, followed by an impressive series of performances with the Dixieland groups of Roy Liberto, Louis Cottrell, Dr. Frank Minyard, the Olympic Brass Band and Bob French’s Original Tuxedo Band. Connick appeared with his own quintet at the 1977 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. All before he was in his teens!

Connick has done as much as anyone to bring jazz back to popularity, and he’s done it by appealing to the “pop” and “cabaret” crowd while remaining faithful to New Orleans jazz and its community.

MRS. R.A. BAKER, Gardena