Free Screening of LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S BLACK & BLUES Comes to The 12th Annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival

The 12th Annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival will present a FREE screening of the Imagine Documentaries and Apple TV+ critically-acclaimed film, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, on Wednesday, November 15, 7:00 pm, at The Newark Museum of Art, 49 Washington Street, in Newark, NJ. Tickets are available Here.

The 106-minute film, directed by Sacha Jenkins, presents more than just Armstrong’s renowned entertainment career; it also delves into the jazz icon’s views on civil rights, racism and his humanitarian spirit. Following the screening, the partners will also present a panel to discuss the film with Jenkins, film producer Julie Anderson, LAEF Executive Director Jackie Harris and Moderator Pam Morgan, Founder and Director, Women in Media.

The film had its World Premiere as an Official Selection at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and debuted globally on Apple TV+ on October 28, 2022.

Cited as one the most influential and popular musicians in modern music, the New Orleans-born trumpeter Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was the founding father of jazz as its first major soloist, vocalist and inventor of scat-singing. For decades, Armstrong was a positive, upbeat superstar who gave joy and happiness to fans all over the world, with his electric smile and down-home, gravelly voice.

But Jenkins’ film reveals a somber side of Armstrong that the public rarely saw – the serious Armstrong who grew up poor in the Jim Crow South who endured years of second class citizenship and witnessed the brutalization of African Americans. The film shows this side of Armstrong through his massive collection of audio tapes, films and writings. The film also highlights how Armstrong represented the United States as a cultural ambassador during The Cold War, while speaking out against its racism, as evidenced by Armstrong’s public criticism of President Eisenhower’s initial reluctance to send Federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to integrate nine Black students in that city’s all-White Central High School in 1957.

Supported by Terence Blanchard’s luscious score, the film portrays a complex, more human portrait of Armstrong, with commentary from dozens of jazz and cultural luminaries including Wynton Marsalis, Orson Wells, Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Allen, Amiri Baraka, Count Basie, Leonard Bernstein rap pioneer Nas and Armstrong biographer Ricky Riccardi.

The critical response to the documentary was overwhelmingly positive. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film was a “delightful experience for jazz buffs and more than an eye-opener for any youngsters who barely know who Armstrong was” while The Boston Herald opined that the documentary ”… reintroduces one of the 20th century’s most towering and beloved cultural icons to a new generation.”

Sacha Jenkins’ other films include Word Is Bond (2018), Burn Mother*****r Burn (2017) and Fresh Dressed (2015). He is also a television producer, writer, musician, artist, curator, and chronicler of hip-hop, metal, punk and graffiti cultures and was the Co-Founder of Beat-Down Newspaper and Ego Trip magazine.

Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues riffs off a popular song Armstrong sang entitled “Black & Blue,” composed by Thomas “Fats” Waller. In this riveting and revealing documentary, Armstrong talks eloquently, oftentimes angrily, and at all times honestly, about the promises and perils of being Black in America.

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