Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues

R

Released Oct 28, 2022

1 hr. 44 min.

Documentary

Music

Biography

List

98%

54 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

"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.

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Critics Consensus

A fitting tribute to a titan of American music, Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues honors its subject by letting him tell his story in his own words.

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Stephanie

I liked the music and the history of Armstrong

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/03/22

Full Review

Melanie R

Amazing footage revealing an amazing artist. The film is an uplifting testimony to one mans triumph in the struggle against ongoing adversity. This documentary is honest, straight forward and presents his history through his own words and memoirs without unnecessary sentimentality. Really worth seeing!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/01/22

Full Review

Mark

Really great documentary that leaves you feeling like you know Louis Armstrong personally. Exhaustively researched. I highly recommend it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/01/22

Full Review

Gordon G

Wonderful treatment of LA's life, lots of samples of his music.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/29/22

Full Review

Glenn J

All the personal details and highlighting his love of my borough, Queens.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/29/22

Full Review

Kyle M

One of the purest, honorably respectful documentaries restrained to archival voicings amid a unique poetic structure rather than mostly going generically chronological in telling one's fascinating life story, satisfying the initial compel stemmed from the evoked emotional connections. (A-)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/15/24

Full Review

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Sacha Jenkins

Director

Louis Armstrong

Self

Sara Bernstein

Producer

Sacha Jenkins

Producer

Justin Wilkes

Producer

Julie Anderson

Producer

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Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

It has something new to say, and says it with poise, polish and compassion.

Rated: 4/4

Nov 9, 2022

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

Though the director Sacha Jenkins’s biographical portrait of Louis Armstrong is blandly conventional in its form, its wide-ranging material is inspiring and illuminating.

Nov 7, 2022

Full Review

Claudia Puig

FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)

A deeply affecting and mesmerizing documentary.

Nov 4, 2022

Full Review

Mike Scott

Times-Picayune

Jenkins' film doesn’t play like your standard biography. It’s more intimate than that, more personal and far more revealing than most works about the jazz giant.

Rated: 3.5/4

Feb 15, 2023

Full Review

Noah Berlatsky

Splice Today

Armstrong’s smiling image was important to him. I wish this documentary had been less interested in preserving that, though, and more focused on helping us understand the totality of a titanic artist and a fascinating man.

Feb 11, 2023

Full Review

Jack Seale

Radio Times

Some stunningly crisp archive footage, particularly of old American chat and variety TV shows, combines with previously unheard personal recordings to create this rounded portrait of one of jazz’s most influential players.

Dec 19, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

"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.

Director: Sacha Jenkins
Executive Producer: Brian Grazer, Michele Anthony, Ron Howard, David Blackman
Distributor: Apple TV+
Production Co: Apple Original Films, Polygram Entertainment, Imagine Documentaries
Rating: R (Language)
Genre: Documentary, Music, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 28, 2022, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 28, 2022
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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