Harry opened with "Let's Just Kiss" and continued to play 4 or 5 more from the new CD.  His voice was in top form - very strong and effortless.  But this show was more jazz than funk and he was really enjoying himself.  He played the piano with a passion that I had not seen from him in a while.

The next phase of the show was what harry dubbed the variety hour.  He brought allowed the members of his quartet to do some solos and then invited some old friends on the stage one by one to have the spotlight.  Lucien, Leroy & Dave were there and the tempo was upbeat.  They played solo and together was it was a lot of fun and improvisation.  Harry told a lot of jokes and stories during this time.  His high school theology teacher and family were on the right of us and his cousin Bridget was to the left.  Harry talked about the dirty dressing room, the south and chicken and cheap wine! (an inside story - you had to be there!).

He closed out the night with a version of "To See You" that made me cry.  He sounded like he was singing the song to Jill and no one else was around or mattered.  It was incredible.  Then he moved into the last song - my favorite - "Learn To Love".  He and all the musicians came out for an encore and they really had a great time.

Musically it was a very different show from the Star Turtle tour last year - but just as enjoyable.  Be prepared for jazz - this caught some fans off guard (especially ones that just knew him from She and Star Turtle).  I would suggest that all fans go see this tour - have fun!

After the opening orchestra segment, Harry gave the crowd a quick primer on jazz music before the quartet broke into a jam session.  It was great to hear him play jazz again since he has been doing other things for the past couple of years.  Harry introduced Charnet Moffet on bass, Ned Gould on sax, and Arthur Latin on drums.  Next the quartet left the stage and Harry played duets with several artists.  First was Lucien Barbarin on trombone and vocals, followed by Leroy Brown on trumpet and vocals, Ned Gould on sax, Dave Schumacher on bass saxophone, and finally Charnet Moffet on bass.  Harry told the story of how he and Charnet met when they both won at a jazz competition when he was 14.  The two of them have not played together for 15 years before this tour.  After the duets, Harry explained how to play New Orleans piano.  He said the left hand is the most important: he plays the bass with his left pinky, the rhythm with the other four fingers of his left hand, and the right hand is just the "icing on the cake".  Then he treated the crowd to some real New Orleans piano playing with "Sweet Georgia Brown" during which he promised to play all 88 notes on the piano at least once.   The small group setting is definitely Harry's strength when comes to playing the piano.  He almost seems to struggle when accompanying the orchestra on piano, but with the quartet or his own he can really play.

Harry told some great stories as usual.  The best one was about how a friend of his (he wouldn't say who, but he is on Dateline NBC, and it's not Stone Phillips) was having a really formal dinner party.  Harry, doing his best impersonation of the Dateline host, called several of the people who were invited and told them that they changed the party to a pot luck dinner and asked them to bring a bucket of chicken.  He said everyone showed up in jeans, with fried chicken, and one person even brought a tray of homemade barbecue chicken!  His friend didn't find it as funny as he did.

Next Lucien and Charnet came back for a "duel", with the trombone and bass which merged into "Love Me Some You" with Harry and the orchestra.  Harry made light of the fact that he had to have the words to some of his songs at the piano.  They played "Loved By Me", then brought it back down to the quartet to close the show with a another jam session.  The crowd stayed on its feet to bring Harry and the band back out for an encore to close the show.

As he always does, Harry put on a tremendous show with a variety of music.  Watching him you can see his genuine love of performing.  I can't wait for him to come back.