“What a Wonderful World,” Louis Armstrong’s Classic, Performed with Traditional Chinese Instruments

Sev­er­al years back, we fea­tured Mat­teo, a band from Salt Lake City, per­form­ing the Talk­ing Heads’ 1983 hit, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” And they were play­ing the Heads’ new wave, avant-garde music with tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese instru­ments.  Now they’re back with anoth­er clip. Above we have them per­form­ing “What a Won­der­ful World,” a song writ­ten by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, and first record­ed and made famous by the great Louis Arm­strong in 1967. Watch a clas­sic per­for­mance below.

Last year, Mat­teo ran a Kick­starter cam­paign where they promised this to any backer who pledged more than $100: “Your choice of a song for MATTEO to cov­er (and we mean any song) which will then be ded­i­cat­ed and sung to you in a youtube video post­ed for the world to see…” Some­one named “Jen­nifer” kicked in her $100+. And, for Jen­nifer, they per­formed Arm­strong’s stan­dard. Hope you enjoy. And don’t miss some oth­er great instances of west-meets-east below.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Talk­ing Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” Per­formed on Tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese Instru­ments

Watch Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile’ Per­formed on a Gayageum, a Tra­di­tion­al Kore­an Instru­ment

Pak­istani Musi­cians Play Amaz­ing Ver­sion of Dave Brubeck’s Jazz Clas­sic, “Take Five”

A Mid­dle-East­ern Ver­sion of Radiohead’s 1997 Hit “Kar­ma Police”