Sunday, June 21, 2015

Cover of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World"


Ken Burns said, “Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what Einstein is to physics.” His music has that ability to influence a person’s playing and their mind.

 

He was a native New Yorker who lived in the Corona section of Queens, NY and one of the most significant things about this jazz great to me was that of all the thing is life (the music, the traveling all over the world, his family), what made his world wonderful were the children in the neighborhood running to him and greeting him as Uncle Louis when he came home from touring. After hearing that story at one of the many tours offered at his home, now a museum in Corona, NY, “What A Wonderful World” became one of my favorite tunes.

 

My story is a little different though. I was invited to perform at a Leukemia Foundation Fundraiser hosted by Roxanne Productions and it made me consider a few things.  To have everything and complain is selfish. When I say everything, I mean good health. Once you lose your health, you lose everything. But then to not be in the greatest of help, having to deal with hospital visits and radiation therapy everyday and to make it a cause to benefit others, is going beyond yourself and instead not just drowning in the effects of something but becoming a cause for change. 

 

To see an event like this and to know that people are so beautiful to do things like this, in my opinion, makes the world wonderful. For that reason, I performed and dedicated to this song for the fight and for the cause. What a wonderful world it truly is to still be able to raise up the name of Jesus and bless him the only way a person knows how, in good times and in bad. Thankful, for the opportunity of being part of this awesome event.
 
Please check out the video here: