The vast majority of our You Tube clips are going to be basketball but every once in awhile it’s nice to take a detour into some other corner of life.
Having a lively culture means that some people are inevitably forgotten as new lights begin to shine.
It happened to Louis Jordan but it never should have. He was an unbelievably good musician and singer who was called the King of Jukebox - until Rock ‘n’ Roll took over.
He was a hugely influential musician who wrote songs that are arguably proto rap and some that are arguably early rock n roll and others that are simply superb (look up Azure Te or anything he did with Ella Fitzgerald, his musical soul mate).
His career declined but unlike many older performers, his voice never changed. Listen to this piece, recorded not too long before his death at the age of 66. It’s difficult to tell any difference between his voice here and during his heyday on songs like Caldonia, Texas and Pacific or Saturday Night Fish Fry.
This is a cover of Mac Davis’s song “I Believe In Music.” It’s hard not to believe after what an aging Jordan turned this earnest bit of saccharine into.