Early in his career, Harry Connick was having a campaign event at a restaurant in Lakeview. Connick’s quest to remain as District Attorney was the reason for the evening but for a while he was overshadowed by a kid, perhaps age nine, performing on an electric piano. He was good. Really good! “Hey, y’all gotta hear this kid play!” someone in the crowd glowed. “Who is he?” another asked? “That’s Harry’s kid!” came a response from the crowd. “What’s his name?” “It is Harry, Harry Junior.”
That moment at that site was a backdrop for what would become the Connick profile filled with the rhythm of both music and politics.
Harry Connick Jr. would become a big star. His dad was already a stellar politician as Orleans Parish’s District Attorney for 30 years, but music was never too far away. Harry and his wife Anita even opened a record shop called Studio A on a block off of Harrison Avenue. (That’s where I bought my 45s when those single-song records with a big hole in the center still existed. They cost $1 which fit most students’ budget.)
Studio A was in a part of the building that now houses the Steak Knife restaurant. Even after his retirement, Harry Sr. remained close by. For several years he could be heard playing the piano at the restaurant’s bar. (During that time, New Orleans had a pianist District Attorney and a trumpet playing Coroner in Frank Minyard. The city was only one musical elected official short of a trio.)
Lakeview became a political epicenter for Irish politicians. Over the decades as the city’s Irish community spread, some headed toward the lakefront where the neighborhoods had suburban character yet were still part of the city. Irish names included not just Connick, but McKay, O’Keefe, Fitzmorris and Comiskey. (On the other side of the nearby parish line, the Donelons were gaining control in Jefferson; a nephew of Harry Sr., Paul Connick, would eventually be elected D.A. there.)
Harry Connick’s career was a complex story. On the one hand he had a reputation as a hard-hitting, hardworking D.A. On the other hand, there were accusation of evidence concealment by his staff. He once faced federal charges but was acquitted. Prosecutor misconduct, if it existed, was not as well defined as it is today.
Last week, reacting to the announcement of Connick’s death, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said this of the former D.A.: “Harry Connick, Sr. truly embodied what it means to be a public servant and dedicate oneself to the betterment of your community. Not only was he the longest-serving D.A. for our city, he also embraced our culture and traditions.”
Among those embraced traditions was, working with Harry Jr., the founding of the Super Krewe of Orpheus.
Even the krewe’s name is inspired by music. Orpheus, according to Greek legend, was a superhuman musician. Playing on a lyre given to him by Apollo, it was said, according to my friend Wiki, that “his singing and playing were so beautiful that animals and even trees and rocks moved about him in dance.” (Question: Would that have made Orpheus music’s first rock star?)
In the pantheon of New Orleans politics, Harry Connick may have never been king, but he certainly was a long-standing Grand Marshall.
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