If you asked me to describe the Croonader's act, I would say it was mostly sweet jazz with a couple of ballads, and a lot of ukulele playing.
That certainly doesn't sound like a recommendation. Sweet Jazz was the sort played by white musicians who were trying to appeal to people who didn't really like jazz -- back then, it was played by Black musicians in speakeasies and brothels. Nonetheless, these guys are good. The guys sing close harmony, they scat and one of them plays a high-speed, flashy version of "Twelfth Street Rag", that most mutable of rags, on a ukulele. They show a lot of talent and know how to sell a song. For an eight-minute short, it was a fine exhibition of a musical genre which didn't last more than a decade. I'm glad they caught it and put it on film, so we can see it now.
That certainly doesn't sound like a recommendation. Sweet Jazz was the sort played by white musicians who were trying to appeal to people who didn't really like jazz -- back then, it was played by Black musicians in speakeasies and brothels. Nonetheless, these guys are good. The guys sing close harmony, they scat and one of them plays a high-speed, flashy version of "Twelfth Street Rag", that most mutable of rags, on a ukulele. They show a lot of talent and know how to sell a song. For an eight-minute short, it was a fine exhibition of a musical genre which didn't last more than a decade. I'm glad they caught it and put it on film, so we can see it now.
