Sacha Jenkins' "Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues" a "Revealing Look at the World-Changing Musician"

One of the world's most renowned trumpet players, Louis Armstrong, is the subject of a new AppleTV+ documentary. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. How a poor boy with little education managed to rise to fame as one of the most recognizable voices of all time is definitely a miracle. "Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues" shows how that little boy became a man that was more than just his craft, he was a challenger and a progressive thinker as well.

“Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues” offers an intimate and revealing look at the world-changing musician, presented through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations. This definitive documentary, directed by Sacha Jenkins, honors Armstrong's legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States. The film shows how Armstrong’s own life spans the shift from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, and how he became a lightning rod figure in that turbulent era.

Jenkins has directed and produced such projects as "City Girls: Point Blank Period", "Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men" a four-part doc series that covers 25 years of one the most iconic groups in hip-hop history and the 2021 documentary "Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James" detailing the life and times of the funk legend.

In a previous interview Jenkins made this statement about his work:

I preach this all the time but whether it’s jazz, hip-hop, blues, rock and roll, it’s the same story every time. It’s the same people, just different generations and different modes of expression but it’s still coming from the same place. It’s coming from oppression, it’s coming from pain, and it’s coming from the pursuit of joy and hip-hop is all of that and it’s the most relatable form culturally right now.

"Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues" will premiere in limited theaters and stream on AppleTV+ on Friday October 28, 2022!