Exclusive: Harry Connick On Clive Davis

"An Evening With Harry Connick, Jr. and Clive Davis" took place Nov. 11, at the GRAMMY Museum, Los Angeles, and BLURT was there.

By Jose Martinez

Record mogul Clive Davis and New Orleans crooner Harry Connick, Jr. have teamed up on the singer's latest release, Your Songs, where he visits the classic songbook, reaching as far forward as the 1970s for tunes by Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, and Elton John. Wednesday night the GRAMMY Museum hosted an evening with the dynamic duo of Davis & Connick, Jr., offering a fascinating discussion and brief performance by the charismatic singer.

With all proceeds benefiting the GRAMMY Museum, MusiCares (providing a safety net of critical assistance for musicians in times of need), and the Musicians' Village (providing homes for artists who have defined the city's culture), the evening's discussion focused on music, the ever-evolving music industry, and volunteer work to better the Crescent City.

The songs that Connick and Davis selected on Your Songs include some of the best known work of singer/songwriters Billy Joel ("Just the Way You Are") Lennon-McCartney ("And I Love Her"), and Elton John ("Your Song"), as well as classics made immortal by the likes of Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa"), Frank Sinatra ("All the Way") and Elvis Presley ("Can't Help Falling In Love With You").

Legendary "record man" Clive Davis described Connick, in front of a sold out crowd of 200 inside the museum's intimate Sound Stage, as the "best contemporary pop singer in the world."

Connick, a gregarious performer, both onstage and on-screen, is a natural born charmer who had the audience in stitches. "I can throw it down if you ever want to work with me," he yelled to producer Jimmy Jam who was in attendance. "I know what time it is."

The singer joked that a cover of AC/DC's "Back In Black" didn't make the record before singing some of the classic hard rock tune a cappella.

An icon in the music industry, Davis recounted his experience at the Monterrey Pop Festival where he first encountered Janis Joplin whom he then signed to Columbia Records.

"I was unprepared for the cultural, social and musical revolution," Davis recounted. "It had a profound effect on me."

After the evening's event Blurt caught up with Connick for a brief one-on-one chat where the singer explained his initial interest in working with Davis.

"I was looking forward to the novelty of it; going down these roads that I had never been to. There has been no one in my life, creatively, like [Clive Davis]."

Even though the two did argue about the structure of the tracks on Your Songs, their mutual admiration for one another was never in question.

"What he knows is what he likes," Connick explains. "I've done all these records and I do what I like, but the whole point was to look at things from a different perspective. It's abstract and suggestive. Does he know what he's talking about? Yeah, he does."

Perhaps better known these days for his acting, the singer compared recording Your Songs to acting on a film set. "Even though I was the arranger, this was me relinquishing some of that authority to someone else. It was cool. I've done 20 some odd films and I find it works the same part of my brain. When you read a script and look at the dialogue for the hundredth time, you say, ‘that's what it's talking about.' It's the same with lyric interpretation. There's obviously a very different skill set involved with singing and playing and doing a movie, but essentially I think it's the same creative process. I'm thrilled to be back because it has been a while."

When speaking of the work that Musicians' Village, conceived by Connick and Branford Marsalis, has had on New Orleans, housing many of the city's best musicians, the singer declared, "This is a lifelong, moral and ethical investment for me."

About MusiCares:

Established in 1989 by The Recording Academy, MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares' service and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical, and personal emergencies, and each case is treated confidentially. For more information, please visit www.musicares.com.

About Musicians' Village:

Musicians' Village, a cornerstone of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH) post-Katrina rebuilding effort, is designed to both construct a community and preserve culture. Conceived by New Orleans natives Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, Musicians' Village will provide a home for both the artists who have defined the city's culture and the sounds that have shaped the musical vernacular of the world. For more information see http://www.nolamusiciansvillage.org.

[Photos credit: ©Kevin Parry/Wire Image]