Apple Original Films is offering a never-before-seen look at Louis Armstrong in an upcoming documentary about the legendary jazz musician.
Set to premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, October 28, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues will feature archival footage and previously unheard home recordings and personal conversations that shed new light on the beloved jazz icon. It will trace Armstrong’s influence on the music industry and how he prevailed in spite of the rampant discrimination and harsh working conditions of the time.
“Do you think you’ve lost a step by being born Black in a white country?” an interviewer asks Armstrong at the start of the trailer (watch below). “No,” the “What A Wonderful World” singer responds. “I don’t look at it that way.”
Directed by Sacha Jenkins (Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men), the film traces Armstrong’s rise in the music industry and how his own life spanned the shift from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and “how he became a lightning rod figure in that turbulent era.”
The documentary is made with the full support of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and has been given access to a wide array of rare archival materials, including hundreds of hours of audio recordings, film footage, photographs, personal diaries, and a life’s worth of ephemera for exclusive use in the first significant documentary dedicated entirely to Armstrong’s life.
In addition to directing, Jenkins also serves as producer alongside Imagine Documentaries, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, and Julie Anderson. It is executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard with Universal Music Group’s Polygram Entertainment. Michele Anthony and David Blackman are also on board as executive producers.
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, Premiere, Friday, October 28, Apple TV+