Louis Armstrong: Last News

Roy Trakin “What the Hell Happened to Blood Sweat & Tears?” is the question filmmaker John Scheinfeld (“Chasing ‘Trane,” “The U.S. vs. John Lennon”) asked the band’s co-founder and industry acolyte Bobby Colomby over lunch just two months before COVID. The story Colomby told him that day turned into a compelling documentary that serves as the perfect glimpse into the roots of today’s cancel culture in an incident that took place 53 years ago. It was a reasonable query about a band that, as the summer of 1970 approached, was the hottest entity in rock ‘n’ roll, with a self-titled sophomore album for Columbia Records that topped the chart for seven weeks, spawned three massive Top 5 hit singles (covers of Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die” and Brenda Holloway’s “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” and the novelty-like “Spinning Wheel,” penned by the band’s newly minted vocalist David Clayton-Thomas), while taking home an album of the year Grammy over “Abbey Road,” “Crosby, Stills & Nash” and “Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin.”

Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus‘ 2017 collaboration “Rainbowland” is apparently too controversial for some people.

Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus‘ 2017 collaboration “Rainbowland” got 86’d from a first-grade spring concert setlist after school district officials in Wisconsin deemed the track controversial.

Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus' 2017 collaboration «Rainbowland» got 86'd from a first-grade spring concert setlist after school district officials in Wisconsin deemed the track controversial.According to the, the parent of a first grader in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was excited about the Parton-Cyrus collab, along with some of the other songs slated to be part of the spring concert, which included Louis Armstrong's «What a Wonderful World and Kermit the Frog's „Rainbow Connection“ from .As for why the track that celebrates acceptance was banned from the spring concert, one parent told  that „the school district of Waukesha has really cracked down on anything LGBTQ“ and that „this song being an 'issue' has not in any way come as a surprise.“The parent continued, „All that Miley and Dolly are saying is that they want to live in a world that is accepting, with no judgment and where people can be who they want to be.“The teacher whose class is performing the spring concert took to Twitter and sounded off on the ban.My first graders were so excited to sing Rainbowland for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration. When will it end? @waukeshaschools@DollyParton@MileyCyrus@mileyworld@gsafewi@CivilRights#publicschoolspic.twitter.com/8Na0nETmDwParton and Cyrus have been huge proponents of the LGBTQ+ community.

Widely-adored TV star and mother-of-five Stacey Solomon has shared a sentimental video in celebration of her eldest son Zachary's 15th birthday. Posting a series of sweet messages on Instagram, the 33-year-old Loose Women favourite uploaded a story of her Pickle Cottage kitchen with a '15' balloon and the caption: "Today is Zachary's day. "If you need me I'll be crying looking through home videos of my baby who's now taller than me and growing a beard." The BBC Sort Your Life out star, who is married to Joe Swash, later posted a photo which documented her mission to find her eldest son a bottle of Prime energy drink.

EXCLUSIVE: Justin Wilkes, Chief Strategy Officer of Imagine Entertainment and President of Imagine Documentaries and Brands, has been promoted to President of the company, headed by Executive Chairmen Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

U2 have announced that they are releasing a new album. News that will either fill you with joy or a sense of dread. Ditto the fact that it will have a tracklist of 40 songs.

Hear that? It’s the Cinema Audio Society’s nominations for its 2023 CAS Awards, which celebrate excellence in sound mixing for film and TV. See the list below.

Ricky Strauss starts Tuesday as Head of Apple TV+ Marketing. A 30-year veteran, Strauss spent more than nine years at Disney, most recently as president of content and marketing for Disney+, where he spearheaded the launch of that service and was president of programming for Hulu and Disney+.

If they’re good, music documentaries can serve as a time machine — an immersive experience that transports the viewer back to the magic of another era, where the soundtrack envelops you, and an artist who has left this mortal coil returns for 90 minutes or so to validate their superstar status — a mic drop straight from the heavens. If the films are very good, they leave even hardcore fans learning a thing or two about their beloved icons. And if the films are very, very good, they completely upend public perception and, by extension, rewrite an artist’s legacy in a meaningful way.

Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes won the top prize at the 38th IDA Documentary Awards in Hollywood tonight, cementing its status as an Oscar frontrunner.

Deadline on Wednesday launched its streaming site for Contenders Film: Documentary, the award-season showcase that took place Sunday with creatives from 20 of the year’s buzziest non-fiction movies.

“My only sin is in my skin.” That rhyme is among the lyrics in the 1929 Fats Waller song “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue,” an eloquent and haunting evocation of the experience of being a Black man in America. 

Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event kicks off Sunday at 8 a.m. PT and promises to open up distant lands and even a distant planet—no passport required.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sydney Gallonde, the French producer of Make It Happen Studio, is set to re-team with MGM TV Intl. Productions on a biopic of Eugene Bullard, one of the first Black American military pilots who was also a boxer and a jazz musician. Gallonde has acquired the book rights to Claude Ribbe’s biography of Bullard, which shed light on the man’s heroic life and drew headlines on French media across the country when it was published in 2012. Like many Black American entertainers such as Josephine Baker, Bullard left America for Europe and France in 1914 to escape racial segregation, lynchings and prejudice. The young and adventurous man, who was born in Georgia, eventually settled in Paris looking for a better life and worked at a music hall. When WWI erupted, Bullard enlisted in France’s Foreign Legion along with other foreign volunteers, becoming one of the few Black combat pilots during the war. He then volunteered for the French Air Service and later became a flight fighter for the French Army. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Causeway,” a new drama starring Jennifer Lawrence as a soldier adjusting to life after returning home to New Orleans, will premiere on Apple TV+ on Nov. 4. The streaming service also announced that “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” a documentary about one of the founding fathers of jazz, will hit Apple TV+ on Oct. 28. Both films are world premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the company is screening five features, the largest number of Apple Originals to debut at a single film festival. The Canada-bound Apple lineup also includes “Sidney,” a documentary about Oscar-winning actor and barrier-breaking star Sidney Poitier that is produced by Oprah Winfrey and directed by Reginald Hudlin; “Raymond & Ray,” which features Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke as half-brothers; and “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” with Zac Efron and Russel Crowe in a new dramedy from “Green Book” director Peter Farrelly.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Nashville Film Festival announced the full lineup Friday for a fall gathering of filmgoers in Music City that will begin with the Brandi Carlile-produced documentary “The Return of Tanya Tucker” as the gala opening on Sept. 29 and end with director Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” for closing night on Oct. 5. The 53rd annual edition of the festival will take place both in-person and virtually, with a selection of more than 150 films that includes 38 full-length features, about 30 of which will be world, North American or U.S. premieres. Although the virtual component continues to be strong for the festival, its leaders note that of the 150 or so films in the festival, more than 50 will screen for audiences in Nashville venues, starting with the Tanya Tucker doc, which will be seen in the historic main auditorium of the city’s beloved Belcourt Theater, one of the original homes of the Grand Ole Opry. Other locations include the Franklin Theater in the nearby city of that name, and the TPAC Andrew Johnson Theater in downtown Nashville.

Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 is not to be missed. Not only does the exhibition celebrate Black representation in film, it serves as an important reminder and lesson about the contributions of Black filmmakers and stars to the world of cinema.Opening Aug. 21, seven galleries make up the exhibit exploring Oscar Micheaux’s low-budget dramas in the silent-film era to the works of Melvin Van Peebles.The exhibition also introduces audiences to stars largely unknown to mainstream moviegoers — Ralph Cooper, Clarence Brooks and Francine Everett — alongside iconic screen legends Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Lena Horne.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton now have double the reason to head to the Toronto International Film Festival next month. TIFF unveiled its documentary lineup today, which includes the world premiere of In Her Hands, a film executive produced by the Clintons through their banner Hidden Light.

Goldie Hawn has been keeping a low profile on social media during the summer but returned to Instagram on Monday to pay tribute to Olivia Newton-John.MORE: Goldie Hawn shows support for famous daughter-in-law as she undergoes major transformationThe Hollywood star shared an incredible video featuring stars including herself, Olivia, Meryl Streep singing Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World.The footage had been taken from the 1990 benefit for Mothers and Others For a Livable Planet, and also featured Bette Midler and Cher.VIDEO: Olivia Newton-John dies aged 73Alongside the clip, Goldie wrote: "A light landed on this planet 73 years ago. Her voice brought us to such joyous heights, nothing held her back, nothing. Her mind was strong and heroic.

Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld,” which comes out on Aug. 2, explains why jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra flourished within mob empires headed by the likes of Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, John T.