MANILA, Philippines -- Harry Connick Jr. has a deep affinity with most things black.
He talks with a Southern accent, having been born in New Orleans. He considers the late entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. as ?the greatest artist of all time.? He would like to see Barack Obama become the next United States President ?so he can change a lot of things.?
He remembers that, as a child, he listened over and over to trumpeter Miles Davis? album, ?Kind of Blue.? Connick?s love for that record, combined with a natural aptitude for learning to play the piano at age 3, led him to become a musician whose specialty is jazz -- a form derived from, again, a distinctly black music form, the blues.
Connick is in town with a 12-piece big band, to perform tonight at the Philippine International Convention Center in a concert promoted by MTV Philippines.
At a media reception held Friday at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Connick, wearing a casual black T-shirt, blue jeans, and baseball cap, mentioned that it was his first time to visit the country. He loved the hot weather, he said.
The entourage had just come from another concert in Seoul, Korea. The 40-year-old pianist-singer-songwriter-actor had also brought along two of his three children -- Georgia, 11, and Kate, 10.
?I want them to see the world and experience the diversity of people, and learn at the same time that we all have some things in common,? Connick said.
He said that one of the best things he believed was shared by people worldwide was jazz music. His own parents, both lawyers, had introduced it to him by constantly playing jazz records at home.
Connick spent his formative years studying the music under the tutelage of pianists James Booker and Ellis Marsalis. (The latter, at 74, is still considered one of the most brilliant modern jazz artists, but he shunned fame to become a full-time teacher, only occasionally going on tour.)
At age 10, Connick had appeared on his first jazz recording. At 18 he went to New York for advance studies and a year later his self-titled debut album was released by Columbia Records.
Widespread success came when director Rob Reiner asked him to write the score to the 1989 hit film, ?When Harry Met Sally.? To date, Connick has recorded 23 albums, 10 of which went to number one in the jazz charts. He has written original songs for these albums, but a number of them features remakes of standards from as early as the 1930s.
Connick has also appeared in 16 movies, portraying a variety of roles in such full-length features as ?Memphis Belle,? ?Little Man Tate,? ?Independence Day,? among others.
?I?m a musician first,? he replied when asked which he liked doing more. ?Both are satisfying as professions, but remember that I started playing the piano at a very early age and that really had a tremendous influence on my life. I didn?t appear in a movie until I was 20.?
Age has also widened Connick?s life perspective. In an earlier e-mail interview with the Inquirer, he said the four greatest things that had happened to him were: first, marrying his wife; and then the birth of his three children.
Connick married Jill Goodacre, a Victoria?s Secret model, in 1994. ?I was swimming in a hotel in LA when I saw her walk by,? he recalled. ?I had to get out of the pool to introduce myself. I asked her to lunch but she had work to do. We did have that lunch later, and since then we?ve been together for the last 18 years.?
Tragedy further shaped Connick?s sense of commitment as an adult. He remembered rushing from New York to New Orleans a day after Hurricane ?Katrina? struck. ?I was so worried about my father and other relatives?I grew up [there] and it was very, very hard to deal emotionally with the reality of massive destruction that I saw.?
With another New Orleans native, saxophonist Branford Marsalis (one of four musician sons of his piano teacher), Connick went to work, organizing fund-raising concerts and launching a housing rehabilitation project with Habitat for Humanity.
Two years ago, the duo initiated plans for the construction of a Musicians? Village. It will include Habitat-constructed homes, with an Ellis Marsalis Center for Music as the community?s centerpiece. The homes will provide musicians, and anyone else who qualifies, the opportunity to buy a decent, affordable house. ?[The project] has benefited about 80 musicians and we want to help more,? said Connick.
Asked about the things that fulfilled him the most, Connick paused awhile, searching for the right words.
?There are days when I feel empty from all the energy spent performing music,? he finally said. ?Those are times when I don?t have to think of anything else because I?ve just given everything to the audience. It doesn?t always happen that way, but when it does, it means a lot to me.?
Given the type of audience that Filipinos are known to be, tonight?s concert just might give Connick another such day.
