Harry, Harry, Harry... It Had To Be You

September 1990, I was working at KUAF radio station, Fayetteville's NPR affiliate. It was supposed to be run of the mill workstudy. You know, copying papers, filing, etc. But somehow I'd moved into babysitting syndicate feeds including "Fresh Air" and "All Things Considered" during afternoons on-air. Then, I was assigned to work on-air overnights on Thursdays. I babysat the board. This control unit was the old fashioned type with dials and buttons, no computer. All local news and feature items were on reel carts. One of the music programs I ran was "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz". Then it was live radio. So, that first day with a whole two hour notice, I squeezed into the music library (really a hall closet in the old house holding KUAF). Panic set in. There were CDs, LPs and singles catalogued and staring at me. Strangers. I went to high school in Bergman, Arkansas. I knew NOTHING about jazz music. Then, my news director kindly directed me to Harry Connick, Jr. His first album "19" was out. He put me in a sound booth, had me listen to see what tracks I liked and then gave me excellent advice. Read the liner notes. Listen to music by the artists mentioned in the liner notes, find what you like, then read the liner notes from those artists. So, from that one album "19", Harry introduced me to jazz in many forms. That first night my live music show included Harry baby, Winton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzerald and many others. It was quite some months later before I realized there was jazz outside of those artists that influenced Harry (both contemporaries and predecessors).