From Al Jolson to…Koichi Yamadera?

Remember Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer? Remember Satchmo?

Japanese radio personality and actor, Koichi Yamadera, does his version of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World ala Al Jolson (below).

If you're too stupid to have a sense of humor (or appreciate the arts), the video below will probably offend you. But if you've common sense, you'll see that Yamadera is actually pretty damn good – especially if you've seen old Satchmo live or (more likely) in videos.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Update: And here's Freddy Mercury from the same show…

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

About Danalyn: Owner/author of both Sporadic Mind... and SavvyLancer, Danalyn hasn't really contributed much to this site. In fact, one would argue that she's pretty useless around here...but please don't hold it against her because she did design this bitchin' wordpress theme.
»
«
  • http://www.blogography.com/ Dave2

    Hmmm… in this case I saw it as more of a performance piece where Yamadera-san used makeup to more accurately play the character of Louis Armstrong, rather than going black-face to mock and ridicule an entire race. Regardless, he did a pretty good job!

    • http://www.sporadicmind.com/ Danalyn

      I thought he was all kinds of awesome. But apparently, idiots on youtube think it's racist.

  • http://haroyoshi.com/ yoshi

    that's pretty damn awesome. I love the new years shows in japan. I think one of the best performances was when i saw cyndi lauper monomane and she actually showed up on the show. that was hilarious!

  • http://abraxus.wordpress.com Abraxus

    How anyone can look at that and think it was insulting and racist is beyond me. It is clearly intended as an homage to a great singer. You don't see people freaking out of people of other races and sexes playing Elvis now do you? The Globe needs to grow up.