Have you ever noticed that the phrase "a bit like Harry Connick" is used to describe songs recorded long before Mr. Connick was even born? The fact that Chet Baker and Fred Astaire are sometimes compared to Harry Connick, rather than the other way round, just goes to show that he is succeeding in bringing a wonderful musical style to new ears.

His newest effort, "Come By Me", returns to the mood and feel of what made him a household name with the "When Harry Met Sally" soundtrack: the Big Band sound. What is new here, however, is that an extra decade of maturity gives Connick the wisdom to let many of the arrangements speak for themselves.

The Tunes
The album comprises a mixture of new tunes (composed by Connick) and old (by Cole Porter, Henry Mancini and more), in styles varying from styles from big band swing to honky tonk. The syncopated, swinging opening of the album, "Nowhere With Love", is a perfect announcement to the listener that this is vintage Connick. On the second track, though, he changes tack slightly with the title track, an energetic blues-y tune. Connick keeps the momentum up with a slinky arrangement of Mancini's "Charade", emphasising the great band brought together for the album.

The next three songs change mood altogether, slowing everything down for the moving "Change Partners", "Easy For You To Say" and a fabulously instrumental "Time After Time" (by Cahn & Stryne, not Cyndi Lauper), which builds to a fantastic, almost Wagnerian climax when Connick finally adds his voice to the mix.

The "Next Door Blues" instrumental, strangely reminiscent of the Cantina Band from Star Wars, dispels any of the sombre feeling from earlier tracks, and leads, by way of the short, meditative "Easy To Love", into a light-hearted, fleet-footed "There's No Business Like Show Business".

Another Connick original, "A Moment with Me" highlights the great ensemble, and leads into a very personal, touching take on the Irish traditional "Danny Boy", whose subtle, transparent orchestral arrangement speaks volumes, and acts as a perfect foil for what is so important—the lovely melody.

"Cry Me A River", arranged in a dirge-like, New Orleans jazz style, serves to set up the final tune, a fantastic, eight-and-a-half-minute-long arrangement of the Porter standard "Love for sale". Here, the musicians go to town, and a huge middle segment of the song has great solo after solo, starting with saxophones (Gerry Weldon, Charles Goold and Dave Schumacher), then piano (Connick), and finally trumpet (Roger Ingram, Dan Miller, Leroy Jones and Jeremy Davenport), before tying it all together with a return to the chorus.

The Recording
The logistic problem of having a soloist and an ensemble mesh without one overpowering the other looms over the heads of sound engineers everywhere. However, Connick's longtime engineer Gregg Rubin has done a tremendous job of maintaining balance between the players. Recorded at Capitol Studios in L.A., the sound quality on "Come By Me" is excellent.

The Package
The cover, a black and white photo of Connick in a shirt, tie and jacket looking yet carefree and dishevelled, actually manages to convey some of the real feeling of swing of the album.

The Whole Deal
Purists might argue that Connick is not doing anything "new" here. That may be true, but people do not necessarily want "new". They want "good". In this album, Conncik has shown his mastery of the big band swing style, made some remarkable arrangements of well known tunes, sung with passion and played with verve. This is "good".

average retail price: $US13.99

-- Kyle Dawkins