Harry Connick, Jr. - Occasion

With his dashing good looks, Sinatra posturing and acting career, it’s easy to dismiss Harry Connick Jr.’s status as a serious musician. But this charmingly spare collaboration with Branford Marsalis marks a return to Connick’s jazz roots and a play for more respect as a composer and artist. Regardless of his motivation, the record plays like a relaxed conversation between friends, employing only piano and saxophone for a host of original material. Tradition informs these tunes, with a bebop vibe woven into “Spot” and “Brown World,” and a pop aesthetic running through “I Like Love More.” While the straightforward approach sometimes reveals Connick’s limitations as a pianist—as do his unsure lines on the rhythmically ambitious “Remember the Tarpon”—there is much to be admired here.