, the man that emerges is intriguingly complex: doggedly apolitical yet politically engaged. He was the slum boy who blasted the New Orleans streets into the ears of world leaders.Largely narrated by his subject's gloriously gravelly voice, Jenkins's portrait borrows something of Armstrong's peerlessly influential 'scat' style. Skipping between decades, it){kind=link}
★★★★☆As a founding father of jazz and one of the all-time musical greats, you might not think Louis Armstrong’s repute needed reasserting. Yet the trumpeter’s image as a wide-smiling, brow-mopping Uncle Tom turned off a younger generation – a perception roundly challenged by the documentary director Sacha Jenkins.
Enriched by Armstrong’s own mighty library of writings and tape recordings (Armstrong left future biographers with a highly colourful and meticulous record of his life), the man that emerges is intriguingly complex: doggedly apolitical yet politically engaged. He was the slum boy who blasted the New Orleans streets into the ears of world leaders.
Largely narrated by his subject’s gloriously gravelly voice, Jenkins’s portrait borrows something of Armstrong’s peerlessly influential “scat” style. Skipping between decades, it
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