American Idol: Harry Connick Jr. Is Spot On

[lipshurt]

Oops should have been "deserves" some credit.

Jeff are you making negative comments about jean luc? That was a good band
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[jazz_trpt]

[Crazy Finn]

[Shipham_Player]

Fantastic article.

Although I don't watch the US version we have the original show in the UK with Simon Cowell and it's exactly the same format/principles.

I can't watch it as a musician as anyone who has any subtlety/their own voice doesn't have a chance - it's all about who can sell records and make money for Simon Cowell.

You have to educate the youngsters - my 4 year old boy asks 'why is that lady feeling so sad?' when I play some Billie Holiday - great chance for you to explain in simple terms what a song means.

I know he can't really understand at his age but helping him recognise how music expresses emotions will pay off in the long term and hopefully he won't be an air-head about music when he's older.

Just my 2 cents worth.
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[mellowjazz]

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

mellowjazz is in the dog pound for real.

[mellowjazz]

[lh]

[cheiden]

Regardless of the judges credentials, American Idol by design focuses on finding short attention-span spectacle. Sometimes they elevate singers that are more than a flash in the pan but not often.
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[zackh411]

[EdMann]

There's a good reason so many musicians can't stand watching Idol, or The Voice. The song choices so often don't match the experience of the contestant. If Harry wanted to have a contestant understand the notion of loss in a relationship, perhaps she'd never had one that ended that way. She couldn't fake it so she did the little girl thing on Someone To Watch. That may very well have been the more honest approach for her. Some singers have great chops but little experience, often the case in the youngish Idol. I work with singers either as a producer or in bands, and it's universally the younger ones who don't understand what they're singing... yet.

ed

[Crazy Finn]

[BGinNJ]

Shows like Idol sell style over substance, celebrity over integrity. If you ever have the time and stomach to watch a season, you'll see how they cultivate the images of the "chosen ones". They get coaching, wardrobe, haircuts, etc. to fit the mold. The celebrity portion is a sideshow, too, with the banter and manufactured infighting. A while back, Rod Stewart was a mentor for GAS material- and he's simply awful at it, himself!

Take a singer who really knows the songbook and has coaching, like Jane Monheit- as talented as she is, I don't think she'd make the cut on AI. Sadly, that's why most of America knows who Carrie Underwood is, but not her- or Harry Connick Jr., for that matter.

[mellowjazz]

I am not sure exactly what Harry said, but it's always better to have experienced what you are singing about, but not necessary.

You could research and study many things, and be very knowledgeable about them without having to have direct, real-world experience with them. Also, with many of these things, it's a blessing to have to never deal with them. Case in point. You can study and work in the criminal justice system and be very effective and useful, without experiencing being a criminal or living around criminals, right ?

A singer can channel emotions into a song without having direct experience with anything in the song. An actor can do the same with a part or performance. You don't have to do heroine to feel and sing the way Billie Holiday felt and sang, right ?

My point about Randy, is that he obviously had the skills, talent, practical intelligence and emotional intelligence, along with allot of street smarts and charm, to rise to the top of the stratosphere in a very difficult " business" . All the while, circumventing and hurdling racism and other factors prevalent in this business and every other business. Most of the "people" in the music and entertainment "business" are greedy, money-based, shrewd, aggressive people. You can research who these people are , and were, from the inception of the first record companies and film studios. Many of these companies were formed and run by organized crime and/or affiliations with organized crime. It's a big money, high stakes business, and Harry is aware of all this, since he's managed to rise to the stratosphere in it also. If you can do that, it's a small miracle (for anyone).

[mellowjazz]

[conn53victor]

I heard Chris Botti playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" this morning on KCCK (Iowa's only fulltime jazz station). Thinking about this thread, I realized that Botti plays the words. He meets Connick's standard of understanding and honoring the song. That's why most TH members seem to accept him even if they don't particularly like his music.
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[mellowjazz]

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