Apple Original Films will fund the anticipated Louis Armstrong documentary feature, “Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong” from Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries to join its Academy Award-nominated feature film slate. Imagine Documentaries is the doc branch of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, makers of ‘D. Wade: Life Unexpected,’ ‘Inside Deep Throat,‘ and most recently ‘Genius: Aretha.’ Apple Films Announce Louis Armstrong Documentary
“Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong,” produced under Apple’s first-look agreement with Imagine Documentaries, will be directed by Emmy-nominated Sacha Jenkins (“Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”), and offers a definitive look at the master musician’s life and legacy as a founding father of jazz, the first pop star, and a cultural ambassador of the United States. He was loved by millions worldwide but often mischaracterized for not doing enough to support the Civil Rights Movement. In reality, his fight for social justice was fueled by his celebrity and his willingness to break his silence on issues of segregation and patriotism. With the full support of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the filmmakers have access to a treasure trove of never-before-seen 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 his life.
Louis Armstrong’s achievements are remarkable. During his career, he:
- Developed a way of playing jazz, as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, which has had an impact on all musicians to follow.
- Recorded hit songs for five decades, and his music is still heard today on television and radio and in films.
- Wrote two autobiographies, more than ten magazine articles, hundreds of pages of memoirs, and thousands of letters.
- Was the only Black Jazz musician to publicly speak out against school segregation in 1957.
- So popular that warring sides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa temporarily stopped fighting in 1960 to attend an Armstrong concert.
- Appeared in more than thirty films (over twenty were full-length features) as a gifted actor with superb comic timing and an unabashed joy of life.
- Composed dozens of songs that have become jazz standards.
- Performed an average of 300 concerts each year, with his frequent tours to all parts of the world earning him the nickname “Ambassador Satch,” and became one of the first great celebrities of the twentieth century.
“Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong” follows the global success of the critically acclaimed Apple/Imagine documentary Dads for Apple Original Films from director Bryce Dallas Howard, the Emmy-winning, Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10 directed by Morgan Neville as well as the upcoming docuseries, The Supermodels. “Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong” will join Apple’s expanding offering of acclaimed, award-winning documentaries and docuseries, including “Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You”; “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry,” directed by award-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler and five-time Emmy Award-nominated “Beastie Boys Story.” Apple Films Announce Louis Armstrong Documentary
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