"I thought it would be a good idea to do two albums at the same time," Harry Connick, Jr. asserts of his simultaneously-released new recordings, the orchestral vocal album entitled WE ARE IN LOVE; and LOFTY'S ROACH SOUFFLE, recorded with his trio. "I'm a singer and I'm also a piano player, and the way I sing and play are two completely different styles. So, I wanted to go back and document both of those different styles."

These styles were featured prominently on Harry's previous Columbia release, songs form the motion picture WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. This astonishingly successful soundtrack went to #1 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Chart. In the process, it also became that all-too-rare jazz record to pique interest in the mainstream, bulleting inside the top 50 on the Pop Album Chart. Harry's sterling performance won the Grammy Award for "Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male" (with an additional nomination to Marc Shaiman for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying A Vocal)." The Rolling Stone critics went on to name Harry "Best Jazz Act" in the magazine's 1989 Music Awards. And the Boston Phoenix proclaimed Harry "Best National Jazz Artist" in its annual Readers Poll.

Not surprisingly, the album has garnered an RIAA Gold record for sales well in excess of 600,000. It's no understatement to say it's been a while since a male vocalist backed by a big band and strings has generated so much excitement.

"The trio album, which is instrumental, is all original music," Harry says. "The other album, which is orchestral, that's all singing. It's going to have twelve songs, with ten originals on it. So they are both pretty much all-original albums. I've always been a composer, I just didn't put the songs on my last two albums."

The orchestrations on WE ARE IN LOVE range from big band arrangements and numbers with strings, to one song with Harry singing, accompanied by bassist Ben Wolfe and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. On the other hand, LOFTY'S ROACH SOUFFLE, the trio album, finds Harry stretching his jazz chops with sidemen Shannon Powell on drums and Wolfe on bass.