Occasion: Connick on Piano, Vol. 2 is Harry Connick, Jr.'s second project for the Marsalis Music label and allows him to prove again why he is one of the best jazz musicians working today.
This is truly an ambitious project pairing Connick with longtime friend and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. The pair's friendship and natural chemistry makes this project work. In fact, if anyone else had tried to pull off the same trick it's likely that the performances would be wooden and stiff. Marsalis and Connick are both relaxed and take a very easy approach to the music that makes this album a pleasure to listen to. The chemistrybetween Marsalis and Connick is reminiscent of Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond at their peak.
It's also an opportunity for Connick's talents as a composer to be showcased as he wrote 11 of the 13 tracks (with Marsalis contributing the other two).
True jazz fans will appreciate this pairing of not one but two of the true giants of the genre on an album that allows both to shine and show why they will be remembered years from now as real legends.
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