I just came from watching and listening to Al Jolson for the first time in my life on Youtube.
What a performer!
The original showbiz legend!
He learned it from the same people that Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong learned it from- the great now-forgotten 'Black' showbiz singers from around the turn of the 20th Century!
These were the people who invented American singing as we know it- and Al Jolson was the man who introduced it to mainstream America!
What a performer!
He did it as well as anyone!
What a genius!
This is my tribute to Al Jolson.
And my tribute to one more thing.
Al Jolson performed in blackface. That is, he wore makeup to make him look like he was 'Black'. Many 'white' performers performed in blackface to ridicule 'Black' people.
Not Al Jolson.
When Al Jolson performed in blackface it was a tribute.
He never made his character look bad. Instead he made you feel for the 'Black' man he was portraying. He made you feel for the 'Black' man he was portraying like he was your own brother.
And the character he was portraying was a 'Black' version of Al Jolson himself. But it was a tribute. To the great 'Black' showbiz singers that he learned it from, who sang and danced in front of 'Black' audiences in the late 19th and early 20th Century. It was his tribute to his musical heroes, people who he felt real sympathy for.
And this is a tribute to that legacy too.
Thank you, Al Jolson!
Thank you for showing America how to sing and dance like an American, and showing people like Jim Henson how to be a great entertainer!
And thank you for representing my 'Black' brothers and sisters, for taking blackface and turning it around, turning it into a tribute, a tribute that he was able to get on stage in front of a 'white' audience decades before a tribute to 'Black' people was on stage before a 'white' audience in America any other way! (Although many of his shows were in front of 'Black' audiences, for that was his core fan base!)
Thank you for representing my 'Black' brothers and sisters, and thank you for sneaking a tribute to 'Black' people onto a 'white' stage decades before anyone was able to do so overtly!
Thank you, Al Jolson!
God bless you all out there!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson