Harry recently created the music, lyrics and score for the stage adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Therese Raquin, which ran this fall at New York's Plymouth Theatre under the title Thou Shalt Not. Harry Connick, Jr., quite frankly, is addicted to performing.

Harry Connick, Jr. is also addicted to Macs. MacDirectory caught up with Harry while on tour after his recent trip to the MacWORLD Expo. "Aw, it was great," Harry said about the biannual event. "I love 'em, you know." When asked if he owns a Mac, Harry becomes animated: "Oh yeah, I own a bunch of them." How many? "If you consider the ones we use on the road," replies Harry, "probably thirty."

Luck has almost certainly played a part in Harry's meteoric rise to celebrity, and he will be the first person to tell you so. Beyond luck, however, Harry's fame has come about in equal part, if not more, as a result of the tireless energy he devotes to perfecting his craft. Harry is a consummate performer who holds an almost holy regard for the importance of improvisation. Harry Connick, Jr.'s father also just happens to be Harry Connick, Sr., the charismatic law and order District Attorney from New Orleans, who has held the same post for the past twenty-seven years. As the son of a high-profile DA, performance may be in Connick's blood.

Perhaps the best way to explain the reverence that Harry Connick, Jr. holds for public performance lies in his beginnings as a child prodigy. A born performer, Connick estimates that he began playing the piano at age three. From there, Harry fine-tuned his performing skills so that by six years old he played at his father's inauguration as District Attorney in New Orleans. Harry's big break occurred after he appeared on his first jazz recording at the age of ten.

After asking Harry what it is about performing that was so important, he excitedly answered, "I like the fact that it's fleeting... you know... [a performance] is just a one time occurrence, and either it's going to be magical on some level or it's not. It's the constant quest for the perfect show, which I've never really experienced." That sounds existential, I tell him. "Yeah," replies Harry, thoughtfully, "it is."

No profile of Harry Connick, Jr. would be complete without mentioning his family, who are more important to him than anything else. Connick met his wife, the original Victoria's Secret model Jill Goodacre, while he was in Hollywood doing the score for When Harry Met Sally. A more accurate title for the film would have been When Harry Met Jill. Harry saw Goodacre, in town for a photo shoot, as he was swimming in a pool at the Sunset Marquis hotel. Harry immediately jumped out of the pool, dripping wet, followed Goodacre to the hotel desk, and invited her to sit and talk. To his surprise, Goodacre accepted. Soon after, the couple were married in New Orleans' St. Louis Cathedral. They now have two lovely daughters, Georgia, age six, and Sara, four.

The Connick family had just seen Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before the interview. "I had a great time. [Sara and Georgia] didn't really know what [Harry Potter] was," Harry says with the fondness of a father in his voice, "but they had a good time."

Connick ultimately made his major label debut for Columbia Records at the precocious age of nineteen with his album 20. Every five years or so since then, Harry makes an album, like 25 and 30 charting his growth and evolution. These periodic revisitations by Connick, Jr. are existential goalposts, so to speak. Harry delves into musical subjects intensely serious to him as a reflection on the past five years or so. One year after When Harry Met Sally, Connick's label released two mature albums -- 30 and Songs I Heard -- simultaneously; both showcasing his penchant for serious and romantic torch songs. Interestingly, Harry is reluctant to discuss past efforts, brushing aside questions by saying, "I just go and record records and the company, Columbia, records them when they want. For me, they are kind of history at this point."

In a way, it seems that the existential performance and not the actual recording is where Harry gets his thrill. Connick's early influences reinforced the virtues of perfection with regards to performance. In his childhood, the velvety-voiced singer studied jazz piano under the tutelage of seasoned professionals like James Booker and Ellis Marsalis, the legendary musician and father of Wynton and Branford whom Connick Jr. regards, even to this day, as probably the greatest teacher he has ever had. Ellis Marsalis is something of a legend in the Louisiana music scene. In addition to taking on Harry as a prodigy, Ellis trained three of his six sons -- Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo -- as well as jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard and saxophonist Donald Harrison.

If Harry is somewhat mystical in his descriptions of the thrill of the performance, he is downright reverent on the subject of his teacher Ellis Marsalis. "Ellis was definitely the best teacher I've ever had," says Connick softly. "I think he was more concerned by the discovery than anything else. [Marsalis] was interested in his students figuring things out for themselves, that's a good way to put it."

Connick's speaking voice is, incidentally, as velvety as it is on any of his various multi-platinum hits. Harry is also cool and simultaneously charming after the manner of 1940s crooners. During the course of an interview, Harry is likely to say thinks like, "man," and "you know."

He also has been known to pepper interviews with New Orleans lingo. But there's something about Harry. Connick is very much a postmodern incarnation of the American Masters of the 40s, like Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, who did it all, including comedy, in their presentations to the audience.

Songs I Heard, Harry's most recent outing, is a serious look at songs from childhood movies which matter to Connick. Released last October, Songs revisits these childhood classics in a grown-up manner with playfulness, sophistication and the faintest whiff of existentiality all at the same time. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," the lead song from Mary Poppins, comes off as a raucous ballad performed by a New Orleans street band. Other songs, like "Maybe" from Annie, is suffused with a breathtakingly soft melancholy that is not easy to describe. "The Lonely Goatherd" from the Sound of Music is, by contrast, transformed by Connick into a bawdy shoo-be-doo number. In Songs I Heard, Harry Connick uses the favorites of his childhood to display all he's learned about the history of American music in the meantime.

And speaking about music, what does Harry think of the iPod? "I have one," laughs Connick, "but I haven't even looked at the box yet, I've been so busy [with the tour]. Actually, I got 'em for people for Christmas. I don't listen to a whole lot of music, but I think it's a good idea."

Harry has managed to break through the artificial boundaries that separate jazz, big band, popular music, standards, movie soundtracks and Broadway showtunes. Ultimately, Harry seems to be saying, music is music and the stylistic differences between them are slight. Connick is at home with the great musicians of the past: Gershwin, Berlin, Arlen and Marcini, to name a few, are all part of the Connick repertoire. As a born performer who takes his work with the utmost seriousness, Connick is more concerned with growing as a performer than observing the fine line between the styles of music or even acting. It is clear that Harry Connick, Jr. sets his own standards in the recording industry, defying marketing logic by transgressing musical genres and still selling millions.

Macs have helped Harry's music immensely. "We bought [G3s] a few years ago, and they've been great. We haven't had any problems. I use Apple as a means for musicians to read the arrangements that I write on the stage. Instead of sheet music, they all read their music right off the screen."

What is it about Apple that gives creative people the ability to create a thing like Harry's computerized sheet music? "Well I don't know if it's Apple," Harry replies. "Many people use other formats and [create] as well. I happen to like the Apple format, I'm not such a big fan in how they get involved with people though. I got in contact with Apple to get involved with this [our idea] because I think it's a revolutionary concept [for musicians], and they were completely disinterested. Nevertheless, I think Apple makes the best product, and I'm going to continue to use Macs until something better comes along."

Each show offers Connick a chance at upping the ante and catching that elusive goal of the pitch perfect performance. Harry Connick, Jr.'s versatility is second nature because he challenges himself and has done so for more than thirty years. In pushing the furthest limits of what it means to be a performer, Harry is inadvertently breaking the barriers that separate the arts. When asked what particular role Harry would like to be remembered for -- musician, bandleader, composer -- he replied, "I don't really think of it like that." Connick doesn't see the distinctions between the forms of performing. "I just wake up every day and do what I do and just try to become the best at 'it'. You know what I mean?"

Harry's acting career is similarly marked by its improvisational range. Harry has played a popular frat boy in Little Man Tate, a cocky scene-stealing fighter pilot in Independence Day, a romantic lead in Hope Floats, a young military officer in Memphis Belle and a haunting serial killer in Copycat.

Little Man Tate, where Harry made his acting debut, is filled with ironic coincidences. Connick was a child prodigy, and in the film he plays the older friend of a child prodigy named Tate. The film was directed by Jodie Foster, also a child prodigy, who stars as Tate's mother. What did Connick come away with after working on the film with Ms. Foster?

"It's hard to say specifically," remembers Harry. "I was like 22 years old. Jodie Foster made me aware of the importance of dialogue and listening to other actors... I was basically getting an acting lesson as far as I was concerned."

And in the meantime, what has he learned about film? What, for example, factors into Harry's decision to take a role? "There's a lot of different elements," he responds, "...who's directing it, who's producing it, what the story is like, whether I respond to the writing, and what other actors are involved."

In Connick's short career he has earned two Grammy's as well as an Emmy, Cable Ace, Golden Globe, and numerous Oscar nominations; Harry also has four multi-platinum, three platinum and three gold albums. He has performed at the White House and Windsor Castle, as well as all points in between. And to think, it all began with a call from Rob Reiner to score When Harry Met Sally. Did he ever think the soundtrack would make him a household name?

"No, I really didn't," his velvety voice blanketed in a thick New Orleans drawl. "I mean, I knew on some level that it would be successful, but I never would have predicted that. I just do things cause I like to do 'em. Whatever happens, happens."