Apple Original Films has announced that it has greenlit “Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong”, a documentary feature on the game-changing musician hailing from Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries.
The documentary will be directed by Emmy nominee Sacha Jenkins, who helmed Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men. Jenkins will also produce alongside Julie Anderson, Sara Bernstein and Justin Wilkes, while Ron Howard and Brian Grazer will executive produce.
The film will, according to shadowandact.com, give viewers an exclusive look into the man we know as the founding father of jazz and the world’s first pop star. Filled with never-before-seen archival materials such as audio recordings, film footage, photographs, personal diaries that will be exclusively used, Black & Blues will follow Louis Armstrong’s prolific career as a musician but also the scrutiny he earned for not doing enough to Civil Rights Movement.
Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad Of Louis Armstrong will also be produced in association with Universal Music Group’s Polygram Entertainment with Michele Anthony and David Blackman serving as executive producers.
It will be just the latest documentary that fom Apple Original Films, who have been behind the likes of other acclaimed docs such as Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You, Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, Beastie Boys Story and Home.
Nicknamed “Satchmo,” Louis Armstrong was born and raised in Louisiana and rose to prominence in the field of jazz in the 1920s. Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1971.
