By MARISSA CALLIGEROS March 29, 2010 The Brisbane Times New Orleans has come Down Under. `The Saints', led by the ever-charismatic Harry Connick Jr, came marching in to Brisbane Convention Centre last week for toe-tapping tribute to the singer's hometown of "Nawlins". Connick initially took to the stage with his 14-piece-band, including a six-piece string section, to croon a few lush romantic numbers, including The Way You Look Tonight, Smile and Mona Lisa, to a swooning female audience. He oozes the sex appeal of a nonchalant crooner, but Connick does not appear to fit his best-known persona, for he has the respectful humility of an ensemble player. He went so far as to admit his contempt for a Gold Coast jet ski tour guide. "Australians are so good looking and you don't even realise it," he told the crowd. "I was on the Gold Coast this morning and my daughter and I - yes, my daughter is with me on tour - and my friend Melissa when on a jet-ski safari... "The instructor was one of these real good looking Australians, you know, with the tan and the body. And my daughter and Melissa are like, `Ahlayaya, like drooling all over him.' "And you know what his name is, Luke. Luke! Life is easy when you have a name like Luke. "Do you know how hard life is with a name like Harry?" He then spied a 13-year-old in the front row. "Man, don't tell me you wanted to come see me? Man, you were dragged here by your parents right?" The teenager nods. "OK what's your favourite band man?" The teenager replies, "Green Day". "Oh yeah. Cool man. They're good guys. What's your favourite song?" The teenager cooly replies, "American Idiot". Cue raucous audience laughter. Yet Connick is as fluid in his humour, as he his in song. The child prodigy, who played his first New Orleans gig at the tender age of six, has the rythm and blues of the Cresent City flowing through his limbs and vocals. Connick evoked the spirit of New Orleans, inviting his audience to visit the city, post-Katrina, then took to the grand piano to channel its legends. His fingers spoke eloquently and emotively through the piano of his birthplace during his performance of the classic Junco Partner. From there, Connick's performance ascended into a barnstorming jazz rage, embedded in the traditions of Dixeland. It was a little latin, jazz, funk and boogaloo all rolled in one. Yet the New Orleans tribute exploded when Connick welcomed esteemed trumbonist Lucien Barbarin from the famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band to the stage. The two clowned their way through Big Easy party staples including A Kiss to Build a Dream On and Go to the Mardi Gras, on which the two men broke into dance, shaking their rear-ends across the stage. "Let me show you how we dance in Nawlins," Connick said. He then transformed into a Mardi Gras king strutting around the stage. He performed the big-band charts sparring engagingly with the expert brass solos of trumpet player Leroy Jones and saxophone player Jerry Weldon keeping faithful to the spontaneity demanded by the genre. As Weldon played in the spotlight, Barbarin and Jones, clowned about at the side of the stage. The performance was complete with spirited shout-outs from the band members to the sax player. "Oh yeah! Come On!" Connick returned to his place centre stage with a trumpet in hand further impressing the audience. "Let's do another. I want to do another," Barbarin said. And another they did - performing Bourbon Street Parade to raptuous applause and a standing ovation. The pace changed when Kate Connick, 12, graced the stage to perform a duet with Dad - Let's Call the Whole Thing Off. The pair turned this to humour with the pay-off line, "You say Lady Gaga, I say Sinatra." Finally, Connick ran through several genres to the climax: And I Love You So [Sinatra], followed by Come By Me [New Orleans] and All the Way [all of the above]. Connick charmed the audience, while his music enlivened them.