From his first major break onto the scene with 20 and his contributions on the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack to his most recent album She, Connick has swung from a conservative big band style to a rambunctious flash of fusion.

Tuesday night, that rhapsodic rendition of jazz, funk, ballad and rock 'n' roll will take the stage at the Lied Center for Performing Arts as Connick and his funk band hit the UNL campus stop of their "She College Tour."

The 7:30 p.m. show is sold out.

It has been a little over a year since Connick played before a Nebraska audience. The original She tour stopped at Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha during summer 1994. That night, Connick had the crowd breaking through barricades and dancing under the stars as he invited fans to leave their seats and surround the stage.

The detachment from the crowd set up by fences was not the arena Connick wanted to play.

For those surprised by She, Connick says the style is simply getting back to his roots.

"This is the music I've played my whole life," he says.

"Everything I have done revolves around the New Orleans experience."

Connick was born in that steamy Louisiana town. By the time he was 6 years old he was playing at his father's swearing-in ceremony as district attorney. A few years later, the 10-year-old Connick was recording with a local jazz band.

He studied with the likes of Ellis Marsalis and James Booker while playing his music in the city's French Quarter. His first album was released by the time he was 19.

What followed was a string of hit albums, videos and appearances in movies such as Memphis Belle, and, most recently, Copycat.

"I'm the kind of person who's always changing it up," he says.

Those experiences and that attitude played into the making of She, including the song "Booker," inspired by his early piano teacher. Tuesday night, Connick, the funk band and the music of She will bring with them a show the likes of which has never been presented on the Lied Center stage.

"I thought it was understood, by everyone in this room...," Connick sings soulfully in the opening bars of "Honestly Now."

"Safety's just danger out of place."