NaplesNews.com
By JONATHAN FOERSTER
February 12, 2010

Harry Connick Jr. begged for forgiveness. He pleaded for understanding and hoped for mercy.

He ended up with a standing ovation.

Throughout his two-hour set at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall on Thursday, the New Orleans pianist and crooner kept apologizing for his performance.

“I didn’t want to give you a crap show,” he said about half way through the evening. “But I’ll tell you right now it just might be that.”

Still sporting a Super Bowl hangover from celebrating his hometown Saints victory and fighting off the beginnings of a cold, Connick did sound a little rough around the edges.

But if Thursday night was a poor showing on his part, consider those who get to see him at full strength extremely lucky.

Despite a few coughs here and there and the occasional cracked note, Connick performed what might be the most entertaining and impressive pop music performance Southwest Florida has seen in years.

Leading a tight band, with matching six-piece brass and strings sections, Connick gracefully bounced through pop music’s cannon, plucking succulent selections from the past century and putting them through their paces.

He did breezy takes on “The Way You Look Tonight” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” turned in a handful of effortless sounding New Orleans piano tunes and turned on the charm for a few Nat Cole tracks.

Never one to stand too pat, he gave a thoroughly modern reading to “For Once in My Life,” with a rhythm part cribbed from modern R&B hits.

Connick has never had the big voice of a Michael Buble, and he always feels slightly awkward on stage when he isn’t behind the piano. But his soul is in performing.

You could hear it in the James Booker and Jelly Roll Morton inspired piano solos. His great ear for lyrical piano playing rubs off on his singing. It’s syncopated without being overly obtuse. His phrasing is precise when he needs it to be, but loose and sometimes languid when he’s got time to spare.

The audience was treated to a side of Connick not on display on his albums or in his film work. He’s a genuinely funny guy. Whether it was his continual reminders of the Saints’ victory on Sunday or his experience singing for a television audience in China, the Mann crowd was laughing almost as much as it was applauding.

“You can’t sound romantic singing in Chinese,” Connick said after relaying a story of his attempts to sing a love song in the language earlier in the week. “Unless you are from China.”

The show’s highlight was most certainly the extended set of tunes performed with longtime accompanist Lucien Barbarin, whose Louis Armstrong impressions were as spot on as his playing. After former Connick band member Dan Miller, who now spends part of his time playing on Sanibel Island, made his way to the stage, the band broke out into long and inspired version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

It was like Mardi Gras came five days too early.